• The Journal of Engineering Geology
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• v.26 no.1
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• pp.143-152
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• 2016

To estimate the stability of a debris flow it is necessary to know the mass of surface soil, cohesion, slope, and friction angle. Given that the mass of surface soil is a function of soil thickness and mass density, it is important to obtain reliable estimates of soil thickness across a wide area. The objective of this paper is to estimate soil thickness using the elastic wave velocity with a new standard velocity. Tests are performed in debris-flow hazard areas, after which four profiles are selected to obtain the elastic wave velocity. Dynamic cone penetration tests are carried out to find the soil thickness at 18 points. The elastic wave velocity shows the area consists of 3~4 layers, and soil thicknesses are predicted by utilizing the new standard. The elastic wave velocity and dynamic cone penetration tests yield large differences in soil thickness. Therefore, this study shows that the new standard is useful not only in estimating soil thickness but also in improving the reliability of estimates of soil thickness.

• Proceedings of the Korean Geotechical Society Conference
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• 2010.09c
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• pp.24-30
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• 2010

The void ratio and elastic moduli are design parameters used in geotechnical engineering to understand soil behavior. Elastic and electromagnetic waves have been used to evaluate the various soil characteristics due to high resolution. The objective of this study is to evaluate the void ratio and elastic moduli based on elastic wave velocities and electrical resistivity. The Field Velocity Resistivity Probe (FVRP) is developed to obtain the elastic and electromagnetic wave profiles of soil during penetration. The Piezoelectric Disk Elements (PDE) and Bender Elements (BE) are used as transducers for measuring the elastic wave velocities such as compressional and shear wave velocities. The Electrical Resistivity Probe (ERP) is also installed for capturing the electrical resistivity profile. The application test is carried out on the southern coast of the Korean peninsula. The field tests are performed at a depth of 6~20 m, at 10 cm intervals for measuring elastic wave velocities and at 0.5cm intervals for measuring electrical resistivity. The elastic moduli such as constraint and shear moduli are calculated by using measured elastic wave velocities. The void ratios are also evaluated based on the elastic wave velocities and the electrical resistivity. Furthermore, the converted void ratios by using FVRP are compared with the volumetric void ratio obtained by a standard consolidation test. The comparison shows that the void ratios based on the FVPR match the volume based void ratio well. This study suggests that the FVRP may be a useful device to effectively determine the elastic moduli and void ratio in the field.

• Magazine of the Korean Society of Agricultural Engineers
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• v.24 no.3
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• pp.73-83
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• 1982

study aims to derive a rational method for the analysis of the farm silo supported on an elastic foundation in which it is assumed that the reaction pressure of the soil at a point is proportional to the deflection at that point. In order to investigate the effects of an elastic foundation on the behaviour of the structures on it, the analysis of the farm silo resting on an elastic foundation was compared with the solution that the ground support may be assumed uniform (which was obtained from part I of this paper). To calculate the deformation of an elastic foundation, Boussinesq's solution which allows an interaction of the various parts of ground was adopted. In this case, the foundation was treated as a superparametric element additionally. In the evaluation of an element stiffness matrix, Gauss quadrature' was used. In above numerical integration, 3-point rule for the farm silo wall and the footing was introduced and 2-point rule for the evaluation of a reaction between the footing and the elastic foundation was adopted. The stresses of a farm silo on an elastic foundation were smaller than those which the distribution of contact pressure between the footing and the soil is assumed uniformly. Since the differences of stresses were remarkable in PS structures than RC structures, it is desirable that designers take into account the effect of an elastic foundation for the case of PS structures. It can be noted that while the effect of an elastic foundation was more conspicuously observed in near of the ground, the value of stresses at far from the soil was little affected by an supported soil.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.18 no.6
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• pp.83-101
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• 2002

Elastic waves provide an important information about the soil mass in the near-surface. Soil properties in relation to elastic wave parameters are clarified to facilitate the application of geophysical technique to soil characterization. As an example, experiments are performed to gain further insight into the behavior of unsaturated particulate materials using bender elements. The small strain stiffness is continuously measured on specimens subjected to drying, and changes in stiffness are related to changes in interparticle forces such as capillarity, bonding due to ion sharing, buttress effect due to fine migration, and cementation due to salt precipitation. The rate of menisci regeneration is studied after a perturbation as well. Finally, several phenomena associated with the evolution of capillary forces during drying are identified.

• Proceedings of the Korean Geotechical Society Conference
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• 1999.10a
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• pp.285-292
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• 1999

The cyclic plate load test were peformed to determine the behavior of reinforced soft ground with multiple layers of geogrid. Five series of test were conducted with varying the soil profile conditions which including the ground level, type of soil, and the thickness of each soil layer. The plate load test equipment was slightly modified to apply the cyclic load. Based on the cyclic plate load test results, the bearing capacity ratio(BCR), subbase modules, shear modules, the elastic rebound ratio, and reinforcing parameters are presented.

• Coupled systems mechanics
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• v.3 no.3
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• pp.267-289
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• 2014

A proper physical modeling of infilled building frame-foundation beam-soil mass interaction system is needed to predict more realistic and accurate structural behavior under static vertical loading. This is achieved via finite element method considering the superstructure, foundation and soil mass as a single integral compatible structural unit. The physical modelling is achieved via use of finite element method, which requires the use of variety of isoparametric elements with different degrees of freedom. The unbounded domain of the soil mass has been discretized with coupled finite-infinite elements to achieve computational economy. The nonlinearity of soil mass plays an important role in the redistribution of forces in the superstructure. The nonlinear behaviour of the soil mass is modeled using hyperbolic model. The incremental-iterative nonlinear solution algorithm has been adopted for carrying out the nonlinear elastic interaction analysis of a two-bay two-storey infilled building frame. The frame and the infill have been considered to behave in linear elastic manner, whereas the subsoil in nonlinear elastic manner. In this paper, the computational methodology adopted for nonlinear soil-structure interaction analysis of infilled frame-foundation-soil system has been presented.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.33 no.5
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• pp.573-588
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• 2009

In this paper a four-node hybrid stress element is proposed for analysing arbitrarily shaped plates on a two parameter elastic foundation. The element is developed by combining a hybrid plate stress element and a soil element. The formulation is based on Hellinger-Reissner variational principle in which both inter element compatible boundary displacement and equilibrated stress fields for the plate as well as the foundation are chosen separately. This formulation also allows a low order polynomial interpolation functions. Numerical examples are presented to show that the validity and efficiency of the present element for the plate analysis resting on an elastic foundation. In these examples the effect of soil depth, interaction between closed plates on soil parameters, comparison with Winkler hypothesis is investigated.

• Journal of the Earthquake Engineering Society of Korea
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• v.6 no.3
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• pp.53-62
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• 2002

Site soil condition affects significantly on the seismic response of a structure and is a critical factor for the performance based seismic design of a structure. In this paper, the effects of nonlinear soil properties on the elastic response spectra of a structure including the nonlinearity of a soil due to the earthquake excitation is investigated using one step finite element approach for the entire soil structure system and approximate linear iterative procedure to simulate the nonlinear soil behavior with the Ramberg-Osgood soil model. Studies were carried out for a linear SDOF system of a variable period with and without a pile group for the 1940 CI Centro earthquake recorded on ground rather than rock. The study results showed clearly that the effect of the nonlinear behavior of soft soil is very important on the elastic seismic response of a structure suggesting the necessity of the performance based seismic design.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.38 no.10
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• pp.31-40
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• 2022

This study compares elastic moduli calculated using two stiffness testing methods with different strain ranges to evaluate the stress-settlement characteristics of foundation support layers. Elastic moduli were calculated by the soil stiffness gauge (SSG) in the micro-strain range and the plate load test (PLT) in the medium strain range. To apply the elastic moduli obtained by the two testing methods with different strain ranges to the design and construction of foundation soils, the correlation between each measurement value should be identified in advance. As a result of the comparative analysis of the elastic moduli calculated using the two methods in weathered soil and rock, which are representative support layers in Korea, the calculated elastic moduli differed depending on the types of soil and stress conditions. For various soil types, the static elastic modulus obtained by the PLT was reduced by 56% because of the difference in the strain level of the test compared with the dynamic elastic modulus obtained by the SSG. Therefore, the results show that it is necessary to apply corrections to the stress distribution, stress level, and dynamic effect according to the ground stiffness to effectively use the SSG instead of the PLT.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.22 no.4
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• pp.339-348
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• 2020

The uncertain geotechnical properties of frozen soil are important evidence for the design, operation and maintenance of the frozen ground. The complex geological, environmental and physical effects can lead to the spatial variations of the frozen soil, and the uncertain mechanical properties are the key factors for the uncertain analysis of frozen soil engineering. In this study, the elastic modulus, strength and Poisson ratio of warm frozen soil were measured, and the statistical characteristics under different temperature conditions are obtained. The autocorrelation distance (ACD) and autocorrelation function (ACF) of uncertain mechanical properties are estimated by random field (RF) method. The results show that the mean elastic modulus and mean strength decrease with the increase of temperature while the mean Poisson ratio increases with the increase of temperature. The average values of the ACD for the elastic modulus, strength and Poisson ratio are 0.64m, 0.53m and 0.48m, respectively. The standard deviation of the ACD for the elastic modulus, strength and Poisson ratio are 0.03m, 0.07m and 0.03m, respectively. The ACFs of elastic modulus, strength and Poisson ratio decrease with the increase of ratio of local average distance and scale of fluctuation. The ACF of uncertain mechanical properties is different when the temperature is different. This study can improve our understanding of the spatial autocorrelation variations of uncertain geotechnical properties and provide a basis and reference for the uncertain settlement analysis of frozen soil foundation.