• The Journal of Engineering Geology
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• v.23 no.3
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• pp.247-256
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• 2013

The carbonate sands of the Sabkha layer in the Middle East have very low shear strength. Therefore, instant settlement and time-dependent secondary settlement occur when inner voids are exposed, as in the case of particle crushing. We analyzed settlement of the Sabkha layer under a large-scale foundation by hydrotesting, and compared the field test results with the results of laboratory tests. With ongoing particle crushing, we observed the following stress-strain behaviors: strain-hardening (Sabkha GL-1.5 m), strain-perfect (Sabkha GL-7.0 m), and strain-softening (Sabkha GL-7.5 m). General shear failure occurred most frequently in dense sand and firm ground. Although the stress-strain behavior of Sabkha layer carbonate sand that of strain-softening, the particle crushing strength was low compared with the strain-hardening and strain-perfect behaviors. The stress-strain behaviors differ between carbonate sand and quartz sand. If the relative density of quartz sand is increased, the shear strength is also increased. Continuous secondary compression settlement occurred during the hydrotests, after the dissipation of porewater pressure. Particle crushing strength is relatively low in the Sabkha layer and its stress-strain behavior is strain-softening or strain-perfect. The particle crushing effect is dominant factor affecting foundation settlement in the Sabkha layer.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.28 no.3
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• pp.15-23
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• 2012

An internal friction angle, which is one of strength parameters of granular soils, can be obtained from direct shear tests or triaxial tests. The result of traixial tests can be influenced by various experimental conditions such as confining pressure, shearing rate, specimen diameter and height, and end constraint. In this study, undrained and drained shearing behaviors of Nakdong River sand were investigated for loose (Dr = 40%) and dense (Dr = 80%) specimens with 5, 7, and 10 cm in diameter. Friction angles such as undrained total stress friction angle, undrained effective stress friction angle, and drained friction angle obtained from Mohr's stress circle slightly increased and then decreased as a diameter of a specimen increased from 5, 7 to 10 cm, regardless of relative densities. The difference between friction angles caused by different specimen size was at maximum 4.5 degrees for undrained total stress friction angle of dense specimen. In most cases, there was little difference between friction angles of large and small specimens, which was less than 2 degrees. The difference between an effective friction angle from undrained tests and a drained friction angle from drained tests was at maximum 7 degrees for loose samples but negligible for dense samples.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Building Construction Conference
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• 2013.11a
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• pp.68-71
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• 2013

Reactive Powder Concrete (RPC) is an ultra high strength and high ductility cement-based composite material and has shown some promise as a new generation concrete in construction field. It is characterized by a silica fume-cement mixture with very low water-binder (w/b) ratio and very dense microstructure, which is formed using various powders such as cement, silica fume and very fine quartz sand (0.15~0.4mm) instead of ordinary coarse aggregate. However, the unit weight of cement in RPC is as high as 900~1,000 kg/㎥ due to the use of very fine sand instead of coarse aggregate, and a large volume of relatively expensive silica fume as a high reactivity pozzolan is also used, which is not produced in Korea and thus must be imported. Since the density of RPC has a heavy weight at 2.5~3.0 g/㎤. In this study, the modified RPC was made by the combination of ternary pozzolanic materials such as blast furnace slag and fly ash, silica fume in order to economically and practically feasible for Korea's situation. The fire resistance and structural behavior of the modified RPC exposed to high temperature were investigated.

• The Journal of Engineering Geology
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• v.1 no.1
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• pp.2-10
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• 1991

Some geotechnical considerations might be suggested to the construction performance from the school and the housing projects in Tripoli sub-region, Libya. The subsurface informations were compiled from the site investigation reports, for which more than 700 borings and lots of laboratory test had been conducted from 1984 to 1986. Most subsurface of 10 meter depth in the Jafara plain consists of medium dense silty sand. Some ground in the plain have poor top soil with interbedded calcarenite or limestone. The shallow subsurface is found to be very poor soil in the southern mountain range. Weak soil is hardly found except in the sabkha area. In general, natural silty sand layer may have a presumed bearing capacity of more than 150kN/$m^2$, where spread or strip footing is applied. Proper fine aggregate and natural coarse one are restricted in Tripoli sub-region. Coarse aggregate is generally supplied from the dolomite quarry.

• KSCE Journal of Civil and Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.31 no.3C
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• pp.93-102
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• 2011

Most experimental studies on soil liquefaction are related to clean sands. However, soils in the field or reclaimed grounds commonly contain some amounts of silt and clay rather than clean sand only. Many researchers investigated the effect of fine contents on liquefaction resistance and mainly used non-plastic fines such as silts. In this study, 10% of plastic fines with various plasticity index (PI) such as 8, 18, 50, and 377 were mixed with wet Nakdong River sand and then loose, medium, and dense specimens were prepared by undercompaction method. A series of undrained cyclic triaxial tests were carried out by applying three different cyclic stress ratios. As a result, the liquefaction resistance tended to decrease as a PI of fines in the specimens with equal fine content increased. On the other hand, the difference between loose specimens with low and high plasticity fines was not clearly observed in terms of liquefaction resistance. However, in the case of dense specimens, liquefaction resistance decreased up to 40% as a plasticity of fines increased.

• KSCE Journal of Civil and Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.14 no.3
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• pp.543-552
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• 1994

A series of drained plane strain compression tests was performed on dried samples of dense Toyoura sand and Silver Leighton Buzzard sand prepared by air-pluviation method to find out the deformation and strength characteristics on the value of confining pressure ${\sigma}{_3}^{\prime}({\sigma}{_3}^{\prime}=0.05{\sim}4.0kgf/cm^2)$. The axial and lateral strains measured in this apparatus ranged from $10^{-6}$ up to the failure of the specimen. So the stress-strain characteristics would be investigated from very small to very large strain levels. It was found that the change of the angle of internal friction ${\phi}^{\prime}{_{max}}=arcsin\{({\sigma}{_1}^{\prime}-{\sigma}{_3}^{\prime})/({\sigma}{_1}^{\prime}+{\sigma}{_3}^{\prime})\}_{max}$ with the change of ${\sigma}{_3}^{\prime}$ is very small when ${\sigma}{_3}^{\prime}$ is lower than higher. Furthermore, the effect of confining pressure on stiffness of sands was evaluated. It was also found that for the range of shear strain ${\gamma}$ from $10^{-6}$ to those at peak, the Rowe's stress-dilatancy relation seems to be a good approximation for air-dried Toyoura sand and Silver Leighton Buzzard sand, irrespective of the change of ${\sigma}{_3}^{\prime}$.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.25 no.3
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• pp.207-219
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• 2021

Several additives are used to enhance the geotechnical properties (e.g., shear wave velocity, shear modulus) of soils to provide sustainable, economical and eco-friendly solutions in geotechnical and geo-environmental engineering. In this study, piezoelectric ring actuators are used to measure the shear wave velocity of unreinforced, fiber, cemented, and fiber reinforced cemented Toyoura sand. One dimensional oedometer tests are performed on medium dense specimens of Toyoura sand-cement-fiber-silica flour mixtures with different percentages of silica flour (0-42%), fiber and cement (e.g., 0-3%) additives. The experimental results indicate that behavior of the mixtures is significantly affected by the concentration of silica flour, fiber and cement additives. Results show that with the addition of 1-3% of PVA fibers, the shear wave velocity increases by only 1-3%. However, the addition of 1-4% of cement increases the shear wave velocity by 8-35%. 10.5-21% increase of silica flour reduces the shear wave velocity by 2-5% but adding 28-42% silica flour significantly reduces the shear wave velocity by 12-31%. In addition, the combined effect of cement and fibers was also found and with only 2% cement and 1% fiber, the shear wave velocity increase was found to be approximately 24% and with only 3% cement and 3% fibers this increased to 35%. The results from this study for the normalized shear modulus and normalized mean effective stress agree well with previous findings on pure Toyoura sand, Toyoura silty sand, fiber reinforced, fiber reinforced cemented Toyoura sand. Any variations are likely due to the difference in stress history (i.e., isotropic versus anisotropic consolidation) and the measurement method. In addition, these small discrepancies could be attributed to several other factors. The potential factors include the difference in specimen sizes, test devices, methods of analysis for the measurement of arrival time, the use of an appropriate Ko to convert the vertical stresses into mean effective stress, and sample preparation techniques. Lastly, it was investigated that there is a robust inverse relationship between α factor and 𝞫₀ exponent. It was found that less compressible soils exhibit higher 𝜶 factors and lower 𝞫₀ exponents.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.30 no.2
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• pp.33-42
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• 2014

The shear strength and deformation characteristics of granular soils at low confining stresses differ from those with high confining stresses. Thus, the clear understanding of geotechnical problems related to the low confining stress state such as the stability of shallow foundations, embankments, slope failure, debris flow characteristics and liquefaction as well as the various laboratory model tests is needed. In this study, drained triaxial compression tests with the cell pressures from 5 kPa to 300 kPa were performed on dry Jumunjin sand. The results show that the internal friction angle and deformation modulus are dependent on the confining stress. Also, the correlations between them on the dense and loose sand were established.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.31 no.11
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• pp.15-23
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• 2015

An experimental study has been conducted to evaluate the effects of average and cyclic shear stresses on the undrained failure behaviors of dense marine silty sand by using the Cyclic Direct Simple Shear apparatus. The results show that when the average shear stress ratio is zero, symmetric cyclic shear deformation is the major component of deformation, and permanent shear deformation is relatively small. On the other hand, when the average shear stress ratio is larger than zero, asymmetric permanent shear deformation is the major component, and cyclic shear deformation does not change much as the number of cyclic loads increases. The average shear stress ratio has less effects on the number of cyclic loads needed to fail, as compared with the cyclic shear stress ratio. The proposed stress-dependent failure contour can effectively be used to assess the cyclic shear strength of soil beneath the foundation for the design of offshore structures.

• KSCE Journal of Civil and Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.32 no.1B
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• pp.85-91
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• 2012

Permeable Reactive Barriers (PRBs) using zero valent iron (ZVI, $Fe^0$) is a promising technology for in-situ remediation of trichloroethylene (TCE) forming dense non aqueous phase liquid (DNAPL). The objective of this study is to develop an enhanced treatment method of trichloroethylene-contaminated groundwater using ZVI packed bed with direct current (D.C.). A column experiment was performed to investigate degradation efficiency of TCE that was performed in three different combination of control (only sand), ZVI column (ZVI:sand, packing ratio 1:2(v/v)) and bipolar column (ZVI:sand=1:2(v/v) with electric current) in the test columns. As the results of this study, the degradation efficiency of TCE was improved with simultaneous application of both bipolar column compared to that used ZVI column. Because ZVI particles are isolated and individual particles act like small electrodes. In this experiment, it was indicated a basic material for application of bipolar packed bed as electro-PRBs that was effective degradation of TCE.