• Journal of the Korean Geosynthetics Society
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• v.8 no.3
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• pp.35-44
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• 2009

The purpose of this study was to prevent spreading of contaminants from movement of underground water by creating a barrier using artificial freezing method on a soil contaminated by oils and various NAPLs. Specimens with 80% and 90% degrees of saturation were prepared to form freezing barrier using artificial freezing method. With increasing freezing time of freezing barrier, barrier was formed faster in the specimen with 90% degree of saturation by about an hour compared to the specimen with 80% degree of saturation. In addition, thinnest thickness of frozen barrier in both specimens was 50mm after 12 hours of freezing time, showing expansion of freezing area with time. The results of this study can be applied to barrier in waste reclamation sites and contaminated regions or to flow control of contaminants.

• KSCE Journal of Civil and Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.33 no.3
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• pp.1063-1075
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• 2013

The strength of frozen soils is one of the significant design parameters for the construction in frozen ground. The properties of frozen soils should be investigated to understand the strength of frozen soils. The objective of this study is to figure out the characteristics of elastic waves in frozen soils, which reflect the constituent and physical structure of frozen soils in order to provide fundamental information of those according to the degree of saturation. Freezing cell is manufactured to freeze specimens, which are prepared with the degree of saturation of 10%, 40%, and 100%. Piezo disk elements are used as the compressional wave transducers and Bender elements are used as the shear wave transducers. While the temperature of specimens changes from $20^{\circ}C$ to $-10^{\circ}C$, the velocities, resonant frequencies and amplitudes of the compressional and shear waves are investigated based on the elastic wave signatures. Experimental results reveal that the elastic wave velocities increase as the degree of saturation increases. The variation of resonant frequencies coincide with that of elastic wave velocities. A marked discrepancy in amplitudes of compressional and shear waves are observed at the temperature of $0^{\circ}C$. This study renders the basic information of elastic waves in frozen soils according the degree of saturation.

• Journal of the Korean Geosynthetics Society
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• v.12 no.3
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• pp.23-29
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• 2013

The mechanical behavior of frozen soils is different from that of unfrozen soils due to the phase change between water and ice. The strength characteristics of frozen soils are governed by the intrinsic material properties such as grain size, ice and water content, air bubbles, and by externally imposed testing conditions such as temperature, freezing time, and strain rate. Especially, the strength of the frozen soils is generally higher than that of unfrozen soils due to ice binding capacity with soil particles, and is strongly affected by a highly complex interaction between the solid soil skeleton and the pore matrix, composed of ice and unfrozen water. In this study, the direct shear test and unconfined compression test are carried out inside of a large-scaled freezing chamber, and the relationships between cohesion and unconfined compression strength under various freezing temperature conditions are discussed.

• Journal of Ocean Engineering and Technology
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• v.26 no.6
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• pp.19-26
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• 2012

Recently the world has been suffering from difficulties related to the demand and supply of energy due to the democratic movements sweeping across the Middle East. Consequently, many have turned their attention to never-developed extreme regions such as the polar lands or deep sea, which contain many underground resources. This research investigated the strength and initial elastic modulus values of eternally frozen ground through a uniaxial compression test and indirect tensile test using frozen artificial soil specimens. To ensure accurate test results, a sandymud mixture of standard Jumunjin sand and kaolinite (20% in weight) was used for the specimens in these laboratory tests. Specimen were prepared by varying the water content ratio (7%, 15%, and 20%). Then, the variation in the strength value, depending on the water content, was observed. This research also established three kinds of environments under freezing temperatures of $-5^{\circ}C$, $-10^{\circ}C$, and $-15^{\circ}C$. Then, the variation in the strength value was observed, depending on the freezing environment. In addition, the tests divided the loading rate into 6 phases and observed the variation in the stress-strain ratio, depending on the loading rate. The test data showed that a lower freezing temperature resulted in a larger strength value. An increase in the ice content in the specimen with the increase in the water content ratio influenced the strength value of the specimen. A faster load rate had a greater influence on the uniaxial compression and indirect tensile strengths of a frozen specimen and produced a different strength engineering property through the initial tangential modulus of elasticity. Finally, the long-term strength under a constant water content ratio and freezing temperature was checked by producing stress-strain ratio curves depending on the loading rate.

• Journal of the Korean GEO-environmental Society
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• v.13 no.12
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• pp.5-16
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• 2012

The second scientific antarctic station of South Korea is under construction at Terra Nova Bay located in eastern Antarctica. Ground condition in the Antarctica is frozen in general, but there are seasonal frozen grounds with active layers sporadically. When the active layer is frozen, frost heaving occurs that might cause the differential movement of frozen ground and the failure of structures. Therefore, it is necessary to determine the frost heaving susceptibility of soils at Terra Nova Bay before starting antarctic station construction. This study presents experimental investigation of the frost heaving susceptibility of soil samples with variation of particle sizes and unfrozen water contents. The soil samples were taken from five different locations at Terra Nova Bay and physical properties, unfrozen water content, and frost heaving tests were performed. For the frost heaving tests, soil specimens were frozen with constant freezing temperatures at the top and with drainage at the bottom in order to stimulate the frost heaving. The frost heaving tests provide volume expansion, volumetric strain, and heaving rate which can be used to analyze the relationship between the frost heaving vs. particle size and the frost heaving vs. unfrozen water content. Experimental results show that the more the fine contents exist in soils, the more frost heaving occurs. In addition, the frost heaving depends on unfrozen water content. Experimental data can be used to evaluate the frost heaving susceptibility of soils at the future construction site in the Antarctica.

• Proceedings of the SAREK Conference
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• 2008.06a
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• pp.1347-1352
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• 2008

The SCW ground heat pump system releases ground energy from the ground water of ground heat exchanger. In other word, ground water is used to heating through releases ground energy which oneself has. But the thermal efficiency of system is going to down because repetitive process of ground water will lost ground energy in standing column well system and if heating load is continually increase, energy of ground water may be frozen or there are no benefits to use ground energy as it owes just little energy. To solve these problems, there are need to exchange water to the ground heat exchanger then the way will be used to maintain Efficiency continually as the way of to be supplied with fresh ground water into ground heat exchanger. However, this type causes waste of ground water. Therefore it is essential to discharge water to outside timely on a heat exchanger. Therefor through a study, find out the best time to discharge water to outside and exchange water to ground heat exchanger, and propose to the DB of design of the ground heat exchanger.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.33 no.3
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• pp.37-47
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• 2017

The geotechnical characteristics of frozen ground is one of the key design issues for the construction of infrastructure in cold region. In this study, the dynamic properties (shear modulus and damping ratio) of frozen and unfrozen soils sampled from Terra Nova Bay located in eastern Antarctica, where Jang Bogo station was built, were investigated using Stokoe-type resonant column test (RC). In order to freeze the reconstituted soil specimen, the RC testing equipment was modified by adding a cooling system. A series of resonant column tests were performed in frozen and unfrozen soils with various soil densities and temperatures. The shear modulus (G) and damping ratio (D) of soil frozen at $-7^{\circ}C$ were compared with those of unfrozen soil. In addition, the effect of temperature rise on the maximum shear modulus ($G_{max}$) and damping ratio was experimentally investigated. This study has significance in that the difference of dynamic soil properties between frozen and unfrozen soils and the effect of temperature rise on frozen soil were identified.

• Proceedings of the Korean Geotechical Society Conference
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• 2010.09b
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• pp.131-137
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• 2010

`Frost heave' is volumetric extension behavior of soil due to freezing. It could have a bad effect to foundations of infrastructures like building, road, railroad and bridge. Therefore, it is considered as a primary design parameter with 'adfreeze bond' and 'creep deformation' for foundation design in cold region. In some countries, studies for analyzing frost heave in many ways have being performed, however, only a few studies for evaluating frost susceptibility of soils by measuring frost heave rate of frozen soils in Korea. For analyzing frost heave as a foundation design parameter, both frost heaving rate and heaving pressure are should be addressed in study. Hence, in this study, development of experimental apparatus to evaluate frost heave and pressure is suggested.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.27 no.5
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• pp.433-445
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• 2021

Artificial ground freezing (AGF) is a commonly used geotechnical support technique that can be applied in any soil type and has low environmental impact. Experimental and numerical investigations have been conducted to optimize AGF for application in diverse scenarios. Precise simulation of groundwater flow is crucial to improving the reliability these investigations' results. Previous experimental research has mostly considered horizontal seepage flow, which does not allow accurate calculation of the groundwater flow velocity due to spatial variation of the piezometric head. This study adopted vertical seepage flow-which can maintain a constant cross-sectional area-to eliminate the limitations of using horizontal seepage flow. The closure time is a measure of the time taken for an impermeable layer to begin to form, this being the time for a frozen soil-ice wall to start forming adjacent to the freeze pipes; this is of great importance to applied AGF. This study reports verification of the reliability of our experimental apparatus and measurement system using only water, because temperature data could be measured while freezing was observed visually. Subsequent experimental AFG tests with saturated sandy soil were also performed. From the experimental results, a method of estimating closure time is proposed using the inflection point in the thermal conductivity difference between pore water and pore ice. It is expected that this estimation method will be highly applicable in the field. A further parametric study assessed factors influencing the closure time using a two-dimensional coupled thermo-hydraulic numerical analysis model that can simulate the AGF of saturated sandy soil considering groundwater flow. It shows that the closure time is affected by factors such as hydraulic gradient, unfrozen permeability, particle thermal conductivity, and freezing temperature. Among these factors, changes in the unfrozen permeability and particle thermal conductivity have less effect on the formation of frozen soil-ice walls when the freezing temperature is sufficiently low.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.33 no.3
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• pp.49-62
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• 2017

In order to understand response of geo-structures to the freezing-thawing process in the ground, it is necessary to consider phase change of the pore water of the ground and also to understand soil interaction with structures. In this study, numerical analysis was carried out for freezing and thawing effect on the modular road system. Neumann's theoretical equation for freezing-thawing processes in porous media can be used to estimate frozen depth and heaving from basic soil properties and ground and surface temperature, but its application is limited to the case for the sediment with fully saturated condition and zero unfrozen water content. Numerical analysis of the modular road system was performed on various soil types and different ground water table as the varying freezing index. The amount of heaving in the silty soil was much larger than those in granite weathered soil or sandy soil, and lowering groundwater level reduced ground heaving induced by freezing. Numerical analysis for temperature history of the ground surface predicted residual heaving near the surface by the freeze-thaw process in silty soil. It ought to reduce stiffness and bearing capacity of the ground so that it will impair stability and serviceability of new road system. However, the amount of residual heaving was insignificant for the road system installed in weathered soil granite and sandy soil. Since modular road system is a pavement structure mounted on the supporting substructure unlike the prevalent road pavement system, strict criteria should be applied for uniform and differential settlement of the pavement system.