• Journal of the Korean GEO-environmental Society
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• v.18 no.3
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• pp.5-14
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• 2017

Experimental study on strength characteristics of frozen soils is necessary for the safety evaluation of design and construction in cold region. The objective of this study is to evaluate the direct shear strength of frozen soils obtained from traditional system (Type-1), system with roller on the upper shear box (Type-2), and system with fixed upper shear box separated from bottom shear box (Type-3). Specimens mixed with sand, silt, and water are frozen to $-5^{\circ}C$, and then direct shear tests are conducted under the normal stress of 5, 10, 25, and 50 kPa. Experimental results show that the upper shear box of Type-1 touches the bottom shear box due to the rotation of the upper shear box. The shear strength obtained from Type-2 is overestimated because the preventing rotation force is added to shear force. Type-3 may acquire the only strength of the specimen, and shear strain at peak shear strength is similar to that at the beginning of vertical displacement occurrence. In addition, internal friction angle and cohesion at both peak and residual stresses in Type-3 are smaller than those of Type-2. This study shows that high strength specimens including frozen soils can be effectively evaluated using improved shear box system such as Type-3.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.30 no.2
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• pp.65-76
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• 2014

For soil improvement, sand mats or sand compaction piles are often constructed on soft marine clays. In such cases, some amounts of sand and clay are inevitably mixed. Sand or gravel often exists in the weathered soils near the slope surface. This research investigates the effect of mixing sand content on consistency limits and shear strength of clays. Firstly, sand was mixed with kaolinite or bentonite at 0, 9, 17, 23, 29, 33, 50% and then liquid and plastic limits were measured. Both plastic and liquid limits decreased as a sand content increased. The water content of clay-sand mixtures with different sand content increased by 10% or 20% step by step and then their undrained shear strength was measured using a portable vane shear device called Torvane. For all cases, undrained shear strength of clay-sand mixtures decreased rapidly until reaching a certain value. Their state changed from undrained to drained state gradually as the sand content increased, which caused their undrained shear strength to decrease. On the other hand, a series of direct shear tests were also conducted on such clay-sand mixtures to investigate the effect of sand content on cohesion and angle of internal friction. It was found from clay-sand mixtures that their cohesion decreased but angle of internal friction increased as the sand content increased.

• Korean Journal of Agricultural Science
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• v.12 no.1
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• pp.86-100
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• 1985

In order to investigate the strength characteristics of weathered granite soils in unsaturated state, the five physically different weathered granite soils and the common soil (sandy loam) were examined. The disturbed and the undisturbed material were prepared for triaxial compression test. The following conclusions were drawn from the study; 1. Dry density of the undisturbed soil samples was lower than maximum dry density determined from the compaction test and it showed the higher value at the well graded soil. 2. The failure strength of the samples decreased with the increase of moisture content of the soil and these results were highly pronounced at the common soil sample having a good cohesive property. 3. On weathered granite soils, the cohesion was lower measured and the internal friction angle highly, the decrease rate at internal friction angle with increase of moisture content of the soil was more significant than that of cohesion 4. The modulus of deformation of the samples decreased with increase of moisture content of the soil and these phenomena were highly pronounced at the weathered granite soils than common soil. 5. The failure strength of the samples increased with in crease of confining pressure and effect of confining pressure on failure strength was highly significant at the lower moisture content of the soil.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.13 no.3
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• pp.1385-1390
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• 2012

Couple of laboratory for controlled low strength materials with bottom ash and recycled in-situ soil have been carried out. The optimum mix ratios for 4 cases with flowability and unconfined compressive strength were determined. The optimim mixing ratios were 25 to 45% of insitu soil, 30% of bottom ash, 10 to 20% of fly ash, 0 to 3% of crumb rubber, 3% of cement and 22% of water. Each mixture was satisfied the standard specification, minimum 20cm of flowability and 127 kPa of unconfined compressive strength. Two different curling methods, at room temperature and wet condition, were adopted. The average secant modulus(E50) was 0.07 to 0.08 * $q_u$. The compressive strength at wet condition showed 10% larger than at room temperature. The range of internal friction angle and cohesion for mixtures were 36.5o to 46.6o and 49.1 to 180 kPa, respectively. The mixture with crumb rubber(case 4) showed higher choesion and lower internal friction angle than the others. The pH of all the mixtures was over 12 which is strong alkine.

• Korean Journal of Agricultural Science
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• v.5 no.1
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• pp.15-28
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• 1978

It has been known that the shear strength of soil is an important design parameter for the foundation of structures, the retaining walls, the slope failures and so forth. In this study, the shear test was performed by using the direct shear apparatus under various degree of the moisture content and the density of the sample soils. The results of the study were summarized as follows; 1. The shear strength of soil increased with increase in the dry density of soil, and at the same level of density of the sample the shear strength of soil showed large values on a good grading of the sample. 2. The cohesion of the soil varied directly with the dry density of it, however the internal friction angle of soil was not affected by the dry density of tile sample. 3. The shear strength of sample varied inversly with the moisture content of it, and this phenomenon was apparent on a good grad ing of sample. 4. The cohesion of soil showed maximum value when the moisture content of the soil reached optimum level and the internal friction angle decreased with increase in the moisture content of it. These phenomena were very obvious on a good grading sample, SDC-1. 5. The cohesion of the soil decreased with increase in void ratio of the sample, but the internal friction angle of the sample didn't show such tendency.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.35 no.5
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• pp.31-41
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• 2019

This paper demonstrates safety factor for effective planning at initial stage by utilizing results on changes of safety factor according to various conditions of slop and examines impacts of factors that affect slope safety factors as well. Firstly, it describes shear strength which satisfies minimum allowable safety factor: 1.20 depending on height and slope. As the height increases by 5.0 m, the safety factors decrease by 0.04 while it tends to consistently reduce by approximately 20%, 30% and 40% after height goes to 10.0 m. As slope reduces by about 0.3, the safety factors increases by 0.4, which shows the rate of safety factors on slope grows by about 10%, 20% and 30% on lowering slope. When cohesion goes up by 10.0 kPa the safety factors increases by around 40% respectably while the angle of internal friction grows by $5^{\circ}$, it increases by about 8%. The rate of safety factors is identified as $Fs=3.86H^{-0.59}$, Fs = 0.43 s, Fs = 0.04 c, $Fs=0.02{\phi}$ depending on height, slope and shear strength. The safety factor with rainfall infiltration tends to increase by 18% compared to the condition of saturated surface on earth.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.11 no.3
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• pp.345-359
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• 2016

In order to investigate the influence of the interfacial angel on failure characteristics and mechanism of combined coal-rock mass, 35 uniaxial/biaxial compressive simulation tests with 5 different interfacial angels of combined coal-rock samples were conducted by PFC2D software. The following conclusions are drawn: (1) The compressive strength and cohesion decrease with the increase of interfacial angle, which is defined as the angle between structure plane and the exterior normal of maximum principal plane, while the changes of elastic modulus and internal friction angle are not obvious; (2) The impact energy index $K_E$ decreases with the increase of interfacial angle, and the slip failure of the interface can be predicted based on whether the number of acoustic emission (AE) hits has multiple peaks or not; (3) There are four typical failure patterns for combined coal-rock samples including I (V-shaped shear failure of coal), II (single-fracture shear failure of coal), III (shear failure of rock and coal), and IV (slip rupture of interface); and (4) A positive correlation between interfacial angle and interface effect is shown obviously, and the interfacial angle can be divided into weak-influencing scope ($0-15^{\circ}$), moderate-influencing scope ($15-45^{\circ}$), and strong-influencing scope (> $45^{\circ}$), respectively. However, the confining pressure has a certain constraint effect on the interface effect.

• Geotechnical Engineering
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• v.7 no.3
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• pp.21-32
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• 1991

The purpose of this paper is to develop a reliability model for slope stability of Earth-rockfill dams which accounts for all uncertainties encountered. The uncertain factors of the design variables include the cohesion, the angle of internal friction, and the porewater Pressure in each zone. More specifically, the model errors in estimating those variables are studied in depth. To reduce the uncertainties due to model errors, updated design variables are obtained using Bayesian Theory. For stability analysis, both the two-dimesional stability analysis and the three-dimensional stability analysis where the end effects and the system reliability concept are considered are used for the reliability calculations. The deterministic safety factor by the three-dimensional analysis is lager than that by the two-dimensional anlysis. However, the probability of failure by the three-dimensional analysis is about 3.5 times larger that by the two-dimensional analysis. It is because the system reliability concept is used in the three-dimensional analysis. The sensitivity analysis shows that the probability of failure is more sensitive to the uncertainty of the cohesion than that of the angle of internal friction.

• Journal of the Korean Geosynthetics Society
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• v.8 no.1
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• pp.33-40
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• 2009

The laboratory tests and field plate load test were carried out to evaluate the reinforcement effect of geocell for road construction. The geocell-reinforced subgrade shows the increment of cohesion and friction angle with comparison of non-reinforced subgrade. In addition, the field plate load test was performed on the geocell-reinforced subgrade to estimate the bearing capacity of soil. The direct shear test was conducted with utilizing a large-scale shear box to evaluate the internal soil friction angle with geocell reinforcement. The number of cells in the geocell system is varied to investigate the effect of soil reinforcement. The theoretical bearing capacity of subgrade soil with and without geocell reinforcement was estimated by using the soil internal friction angle. The field plate load tests were also conducted to estimate the bearing capacity with geocell reinforcement. It is found out that the bearing capacity of geocell-reinforced subgrade gives 2 times higher value than that of unreinforced subgrade soil. The settlement and the distribution of deformation were also estimated by using the finite element method. The magnitude of settlements on the geocell-reinforced subgrade and unreinforced subgrade are 6.8cm and 1.2cm, respectively.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.24 no.5
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• pp.419-430
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• 2021

Investigation on the compressibility and shear strength of compacted loess is of great importance for the design and operation of engineering infrastructures in filling area. In this study, the mechanical behaviors of Yan'an compacted loess are investigated at various dry densities and water contents by conducting one dimensional compression and direct shear tests. And the elastic compressibility, plastic compressibility, yield stress and strength are obtained from the experiments. Results show that when water content increases, plastic compressibility parameter increases, but yield stress decreases. However, the increase of dry density leads to a decrease in plastic compressibility parameter but an increase in yield stress. In addition, elastic compressibility parameter is found to be a constant which is irrelevant to water content and dry density. As for strength, cohesion and internal friction angle is directly proportional to dry density, but inversely proportional to water content. Moreover, the mercury intrusion porosimetry (MIP) and scanning electron microscope (SEM) tests were also performed to observe the pore size distribution and microstructure of the specimens. Finally, by using results of MIP and SEM tests, the compressibility and strength behaviours of Yan'an compacted loess are explained from the perspective of pore-size distribution and microstructure.