• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.13 no.4
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• pp.641-651
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• 2017

Ground improvement with use of geosynthetic products is globally accepted now. The present paper discusses the improvement in bearing capacity of square footing placed at surface of cohesionless soil reinforced with geocell. Mohr-Coulomb failure criterion has been used in the observations. To study effects of geocell with respect to planar geogrid, model tests were conducted on planar reinforcement also. A comparative study of unreinforced soil and soil reinforced with plane geogrid and geocell has also been made. Numerical analysis results obtained by PLaxis have been compared with those obtained from model tests and were found to be in good agreement. A parametric study revealed the role of length of reinforcement, spacing between layers, placement of reinforcement from top surface etc. on bearing capacity. A design example given in paper illustrates the savings in cost of construction of footing on reinforced sand. The study shows that there is improvement in bearing capacity with respect to unreinforced soil which is of the order of 86%. Similarly settlement reduction is 13.07% for single layer of geocell which for double layers of geocell is 693% and 86.48% respectively. The cost reduction in case of reinforced soil is 35% as compared to unreinforced soil.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.6 no.3
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• pp.249-262
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• 2014

Tire chips and tire chips-soil mixtures can be used as alternative fill material in many civil engineering applications. In this study, the potential benefits of using tire chips as lightweight material to improve the bearing capacity and the settlement behavior of sand slope was investigated experimentally. For this aim, a series of direct shear and model loading tests were conducted. In direct shear tests, the effect of contents of the tire chips on the shear strength parameters of sand was investigated. Different mixing ratios of 0, 5, 10, 15 and 20% by volume were used and the optimum mixing ratio was obtained. Then, laboratory model tests were performed on a model strip footing on sand slope reinforced with randomly distributed tire chips. The loading tests were carried out on sand slope with relative density of 65% and the slope angle of $30^{\circ}C$. In the loading tests the percentage of tire chips to sand was taken as same as in direct shear tests. The results indicated that at the same loading level the settlement of strip footing on sand-tire chips mixture was about 30% less than in the case of pure sand. Addition of tire chips to sand increases BCR (bearing capacity ratio) from 1.17 to 1.88 with respect to tire chips content. The maximum BCR is attained at tire chips content of 10%.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.19 no.5
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• pp.343-354
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• 2003

The scale effect should be considered to determine the bearing capacity and settlement of footings from Plate-Load Test, because of the size difference between a footing and a loading plate. To analyze characteristics of bearing capacity and settlement according to the difference of loading plate sizes, model tests were performed with four different sizes of square plate, which are B=10, 15, 20 and 25cm, on five different kinds of subsoil. Based on the analyzed results, this paper also proposes a method of bearing capacity and settlement determination, where scale effect is considered depending on the mixing ratio of sand and clay. Until now, uneconomic constructions have been conducted because of unreasonable evaluation in estimating bearing capacity and settlement of footings from Plate-Load Test in fields. In the application of the formula proposed in this research to field problems, it is expected that evaluation of bearing capacity and settlement of footings can be more reliable and more economic construction can be achieved.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.18 no.4
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• pp.179-188
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• 2002

The scale effect should be considered to determine the bearing capacity and settlement of footings from plate-load test, because of the size difference between a footing and a loading plate. To analyze characteristics of bearing capacity and settlement according to the difference of loading plate sizes, model tests were performed with four different sizes of square plate, which are B=10, 15, 20, and 25cm respectively, on five different kinds of subsoils. Test results showed that the ultimate bearing capacity of a footing on the sand did not increase proportional to the traditional formula and the bearing capacity on the clay also increased a little with increasing the size of loading plate. The settlement of test plate on the sand did not increase as the traditional formula of Terzaghi and Peck (1967), and the settlement on the clay also did not increase proportional to the traditional formula.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.18 no.6
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• pp.575-584
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• 2019

The groundwater level (GWL) is an important subsoil condition for the design of foundation. GWL tends to fluctuate often with seasonal variation, which may cause unexpected, additional settlements with some reductions in the safety margin of foundation. In this study, the effects of fluctuating GWL on the load carrying and settlement behavior of footing were investigated and quantified. A series of model load tests were conducted for various GWL and soil conditions using a hydraulically-controlled chamber system. Changes in load level and rising and falling GWL fluctuation cycle were considered in the tests. Settlements during GWL rise were greater than those during GWL fall. The depth of the GWL influence zone ($\underline{d}_{w,inf}$) varied in the range of 0.3 to 1.5 times footing width and became shallower as GWL continued to fluctuate. Design equations for estimating GWL-induced settlements for footings were proposed. The GWL fluctuation cycle, load level and soil density were considered in the proposed method. Changes in settlement and factor of safety with GWL fluctuation were discussed.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.13 no.2
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• pp.255-267
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• 2017

Soft clay strata can suffer significant settlement or stability problems under building loads. Among the methods proposed to strengthen weak soils is the application of a stone masonry trench (SMT) beneath RC strip foundations (as a masonry pad-stone). Although, SMTs are frequently employed in engineering practice; however, the effectiveness of SMTs on the ultimate bearing capacity improvement of a strip footing rested on a weak clay stratum has not been investigated quantitatively, yet. Therefore, the expected increase of bearing capacity of strip footings reinforced with SMTs is of interest and needs to be evaluated. This study presents a two-dimensional numerical model using the discrete element method (DEM) to capture the ultimate load-bearing capacity of a strip footing on a soft clay reinforced with a SMT. The developed DEM model was then used to perform a parametric study to investigate the effects of SMT geometry and properties on the footing bearing capacity with and without the presence of surcharge. The dimensions of the SMTs were varied to determine the optimum trench relative depth. The study showed that inclusion of a SMT of optimum dimension in a soft clay can improve the bearing capacity of a strip footing up to a factor of 3.5.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.16 no.3
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• pp.2212-2218
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• 2015

In order to find out the load bearing behavior of sand and clay which sustain three types of shallow footing, finite element analyses were performed. Failure zone of sand which sustain strip footing was affected by relative density of sand whereas, failure zone of clay was not affected by soil strength and it was similar to the failure zone which is considered in theory. Considering the shape of load-settlement curves obtained by numerical analyses, punching shear failure can be seen in loose sand and ultimate bearing load can not be seen in dense sand whereas, yielding point can be seen in clay. Ultimate bearing loads for sand predicted by theory were greater than those obtained by numerical analyses and ultimate bearing loads for clay predicted by theory were similar to those of numerical analyses. Ultimate bearing loads determined by 1 inch settlement criteria were slightly less than those of numerical analyses.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.22 no.3
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• pp.197-206
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• 2020

Reutilization of solid waste such as Tire Derived Aggregate (TDA) and mixing it with soft soil for backfill material not only reduces the required volume of backfill soil (i.e., sand-mining procedures; reinforcement), but also preserves the environment from pollution by recycling. TDA is a widely-used material that has a good track record for improving sustainable construction. This paper attempted to investigate the performance of Kaolin-TDA mixtures as a backfill material underneath a strip footing and close to a retaining wall. For this purpose, different types of TDA i.e., powdery, shredded, small-size granular (1-4 mm) and large-size granular (5-8 mm), were mixed with Kaolin at 0, 20, 40, and 60% by weight. Static surcharge load with the rate of 10 kPa per min was applied on the strip footing until the failure of footing happened. The behaviour of samples K80-G (1-4 mm) 20 and K80-G (5-8 mm) 20 were identical to that of pure Kaolin, except that the maximum footing stress had grown by roughly three times (300-310 kPa). Therefore, it can be concluded that the total flexibility of the backfill and shear strength of the strip footing have been increased by adding the TDA. The results indicate that, a significant increase in the failure vertical stress of the footing is observed at the optimum mixture content. In addition, the TDA increases the elasticity behaviour of the backfill.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.11 no.1
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• pp.83-107
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• 2016

In this study, the response and behavior of machine foundations resting on dry and saturated sand was investigated experimentally. A physical model was manufactured to simulate steady state harmonic load applied on a footing resting on sandy soil at different operating frequencies. Total of (84) physical models were performed. The parameters that were taken into consideration include loading frequency, size of footing and different soil conditions. The footing parameters are related to the size of the rectangular footing and depth of embedment. Two sizes of rectangular steel model footing were used. The footings were tested by changing all parameters at the surface and at 50 mm depth below model surface. Meanwhile, the investigated parameters of the soil condition include dry and saturated sand for two relative densities; 30 % and 80 %. The dynamic loading was applied at different operating frequencies. The response of the footing was elaborated by measuring the amplitude of displacement using the vibration meter. The response of the soil to dynamic loading includes measuring the stresses inside soil media by using piezoelectric sensors. It was concluded that the final settlement (St) of the foundation increases with increasing the amplitude of dynamic force, operating frequency and degree of saturation. Meanwhile, it decreases with increasing the relative density of sand, modulus of elasticity and embedding inside soils. The maximum displacement amplitude exhibits its maximum value at the resonance frequency, which is found to be about 33.34 to 41.67 Hz. In general, embedment of footing in sandy soils leads to a beneficial reduction in dynamic response (displacement and excess pore water pressure) for all soil types in different percentages accompanied by an increase in soil strength.

• Proceedings of the Korean Geotechical Society Conference
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• 2005.03a
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• pp.65-70
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• 2005

In this study, the large scale model tests were executed to estimate the Load Sharing Ratio(LSR) of raft in a piled footing under various conditions. The conditions such as the subsoil type, pile length, pile spacing, array type and pile installation method etc. were varied in the pile loading tests about the free-standing group piles and a piled footing. As the results of this study, it was found that there were no differences of the load-settlement curves, along with the pile installation method and subsoil type. The piles supported most of the external load until a yielding load of the piled footing, but the raft supported a considerable load after a yielding load. And it was also found that the LSR didn't be affected by the pile installation method and the subsoil type. As the relative density of sands increased, the LSR decreased. As the pile spacing was wider and the pile length increased, there was a tendancy for the LSR to increase.