• Journal of the Korean GEO-environmental Society
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• v.20 no.2
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• pp.41-48
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• 2019

Soil compaction is one of the most important activities in the area of civil works, including road construction, airport construction, port construction and backfilling construction of structures. Soil compaction, particularly in road construction, can be categorized into subgrade compaction and roadbed compaction, and is significant work that when done poorly can serve as a factor causing poor construction due to a lack of compaction. Currently, there are many different types of compaction tests, and the plate bearing test and the unit weight of soil test based on the sand cone method are commonly used to measure the degree of compaction, but many other methods are under development as it is difficult to secure economic efficiency. For the purpose of this research, a portable penetration meter called the Free-Fall Penetration Test (FFPT) was developed and manufactured. In this study, a homogeneous sample was obtained from the construction site and soil was classified through a sieve analysis test in order to perform grain size analysis and a specific gravity test for an indoor test. The principle of FFPT is that the penetration needle installed at the tip of an object put into free fall using gravity is used to measure the depth of penetration into the road surface after subgrade or roadbed compaction has been completed; the degree of compaction is obtained through the unit weight of soil test according to the sand cone method and the relationship between the degree of compaction and the depth of the penetration needle is verified. The maximum allowable grain size of soil is 2.36 mm. For $A_1$ compaction, a trend line was developed using the result of the test performed from a drop height of 10 cm, and coefficient of determination of the trend line was $R^2=0.8677$, while for $D_2$ compaction, coefficient of determination of the trend line was $R^2=0.9815$ when testing at a drop height of 20 cm. Free fall test was carried out with the drop height adjusted from 10 cm to 50 cm at increments of 10 cm. This study intends to compare and analyze the correlation between the degree of compaction obtained from the unit weight of soil test based on the sand cone method and the depth of penetration of the penetration needle obtained from the FFPT meter. As such, it is expected that a portable penetration tester will make it easy to test the degree of compaction at many construction sites, and will lead to a reduction in time, equipment, and manpower which are the disadvantages of the current degree of compaction test, ultimately contributing to accurate and simple measurements of the degree of compaction as well as greater economic feasibility.

• Journal of the Korean GEO-environmental Society
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• v.20 no.6
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• pp.5-13
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• 2019

The international trend in soil nailed wall design has been evolved from the allowable stress design to limit state design and it is still currently ongoing. The design guidelines in Korea and Hong Kong still adopts the allowable stress design philosophy while those in others mostly do the limit state design. In this study, four soil nail design methods presented in the major design guidelines (U.S. FHWA GEC 7 (2015), Clouterre in France (1991), Soil nailing - best practice guidance in U.K. (CIRIA, 2005), Geoguide 7 in Hong Kong (2008) and Design standard for slope reinforcement work in Korea (KDS 11 70 15 f: 2016)) are described and analyzed in brief. The factor of safety and CDR (Capacity-to-Demand Ratio) which is used to measure the degree of conservatism of a design guide are obtained for the two cases. One is the design example presented in CIRIA (2005) and the other is in-situ loading test performed on the top of backfill of the soil nail wall to investigate the conservatism of design guidelines. It is revealed that the design method in overall stability of soil nail walls in domestic design method (CDR=0.78) is the most conservative and those by Clouterre (CDR=0.99, 1.09), Geoguide 7 (CDR=1.13, 0.97), U.S. FHWA (CDR=1.09, 1.07) and CIRIA (CDR=1.40, 1.16) in order from the second most conservative to the least conservative for the design example presented in CIRIA. For the in-situ loading test performed on the top of backfill of the soil nail wall, the order of conservatism is identical except that the places of Geoguide 7 (CDR=0.66, 0.72) and FHWA (CDR=0.73, 0.72) are changed. However, the results obtained among U.S. FHWA (2015) and Clouterre (1991) and Geoguide 7 (2008) are not so different.

• Journal of the Korean GEO-environmental Society
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• v.24 no.12
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• pp.61-67
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• 2023

Heat pipes located underground in urban areas and operated under high temperature and pressure conditions can cause large-scale human and economic damage if damaged. In order to predict damage in advance, damage and construction information of heat pipe are analyzed to derive independent variables that have a correlation with frequency of damage, and a simple regression analysis modified model using each variable is applied to the field. However, as the correlation between independent variables applied to the model increases, the independence between variables is harmed and the reliability of the model decreases. In this study, the independence of the pipe diameter, burial depth, insulation level of monitoring system, and disconnection or short circuit of the detection line, which are judged to be interrelated, was tested to derive a method for combining variables and setting categories necessary to apply to the frequency of damage estimation model. For the test of independence, the continuous variables pipe diameter and burial depth were each converted into three categories, insulation level of monitoring system was converted into two categories, and the categorical variable disconnection or short circuit of the detection line status was kept as two categories. As a result of the test of independence, p-value between pipe diameter and burial depth, level of monitoring system and disconnection or short circuit of the detection line was lower than the significance level (α = 0.05), indicating a large correlation between them. Therefore, the pipe diameter and burial depth were combined into one variable, and the categories of the combined variable were set to 9 considering the previously set categories. The insulation level of monitoring system and the disconnection or short circuit of the detection line were also combined into one variable. Since the insulation level is unreliable when the detection line status is disconnection or short circuit, the categories of the combined variable were set to 3.

• Journal of Korean Society of Environmental Engineers
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• v.33 no.6
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• pp.413-419
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• 2011

Nanoscale zero-valent iron (NZVI) particles were tested as remediation media for groundwater contaminated by organic pollutants (e.g., TCE, trichloroethylene). The contaminated groundwater contained anions ($NO_3^-$, $Cl^-$, $SO_4^{2-}$, and $HCO_3^-$) and natural organic matter (NOM). Treatability of commercial NZVI particles (NANOFER 25, Nanoiron, Czech) was tested by using a synthetic groundwater and the field groundwater samples. More than 95% of 1.8 mM TCE was removed within 20 hours with a NZVI dosage of 25 g/L ($k=0.15hr^{-1}$). Repetitive degradation experiments revealed that the removal capacity of NANOFER 25 was 0.19 mmole TCE/g NZVI. TCE degradation reactions were not substantially affected by the presence of each anion with concentrations as high as 100 times the average field concentrations. However, when the four anions ($NO_3^-$, $Cl^-$, $SO_4^{2-}$, $HCO_3^-$) were present simultaneously. the degradation reactivity and removal capacity were decreased by 60% ($k=0.069hr^{-1}$) and 10%, respectively. The k value of TCE degradation in the presence of NZVI (25 g/L) with dissovled organic carbon of 2.5 mg/L was also decreased by 84% ($k=0.025hr^{-1}$). In the experiments with the field groundwater, more than 90% of $1.8{\mu}M$ TCE, which is the concentration of TCE at the source zone, was removed within 10 hours with a NANOFER 25 dosage of 25 g/L. The results imply that the contaminated groundwater can effectively be treated by NANOFER 25 with more information on the hydrogeology of the site.

• Journal of the Mineralogical Society of Korea
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• v.21 no.4
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• pp.425-434
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• 2008

Arsenic contamination in soil and groundwater has recently been one of the most serious environmental concerns. This arsenic contamination can be originated from natural or anthropogenic sources. It has been well known that arsenic behavior in geo-environmental is controlled by various oxides or hydroxides, such as those of iron, manganese, and aluminum, and clay minerals. Among those, particularly, iron (oxy)hydroxides are the most effective scavengers for arsenic. For this reason, this study characterized arsenic adsorption of magnetite which is a kind of iron oxide in nature. The physicochemcial features of the magnetite were investigated to evaluate adsorption of arsenite [As(III)] and arsenate [As(V)] onto magnetite. In addition to experiments on adsorption equilibria, kinetic experiments were also conducted. The point of zero charge (PZC) and specific surface area of the laboratory-synthesized magnetite used as an arsenic adsorbent were measured 6.56 and $16.6\;g/m^2$, which values seem to be relatively smaller than those of the other iron (oxy)hydroxides. From the results of equilibria experiments, arsenite was much more adsorbed onto magnetite than arsenate, indicating the affinity of arsenite on magnetite is larger than arsenate. Arsenite and arsenate showed adsorption maxima at pHs 7 and 2, respectively. In particular, adsorption of arsenate decreased with increase in pH as a result of electrical repulsion caused by anionic arsenate and negatively-charged surface of magnetite. These results indicate that the surface charge of magnetite and the chemical speciation of arsenic should be considered as the most crucial factors in controlling arsenic. The results of kinetic experiments show that arsenate was adsorbed more quickly than arsenite and adsorption of arsenic was investigated to be mostly completed within the duration of 4 hours, regardless of chemical speciation of arsenic. When the results of kinetic experiments were fitted to a variety of kinetic models proposed so far, power function and elovich model were evaluated to be the most suitable ones which can simulate adsorption kinetics of two kinds of arsenic species onto magnetite.

• The Journal of Engineering Geology
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• v.23 no.2
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• pp.117-125
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• 2013

Flooding of riparian groundwater caused by changes in rainfall patterns has become a critical problem in areas of agricultural and arable land. Therefore, quantitative analysis of direct runoff and baseflow, which are the most important factors in determining the flow rate of a river, is required to clarify the flooding mechanisms of riparian groundwater. In this study, baseflow obtained using the WHAT system of hydrograph analysis based on Web GIS, and baseflow measured from direct runoff were quantitatively analyzed. Baseflow during the rainy season was 0.489 $m^3/s$ on 17 July 2012, 0.260 $m^3/s$ on 18 July 2012, and 0.279 $m^3/s$ on 19 July 2012, while that during the dry season was 0.006 $m^3/s$ on 6 March 2013 and 0.009 $m^3/s$ on 30 March 2013. The results show that an increase in baseflow occurred during the rainy season in the alluvial area of a riparian zone, and that the measurement error was less during the dry season than during the rainy season.

• Journal of the Korean earth science society
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• v.27 no.4
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• pp.416-424
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• 2006

Because there is no generally accepted definition of a geographic center and no completely satisfactory method to determine one, there may be as many geographic centers of a country as there are many definitions. The geographic center of an area may be defined as the center of gravity on a surface, or that point on which the surface of an area would balance if it were a plane of uniform thickness. This research uses geographic information system (GIS) analysis and there are places where it defines the geographical and the geological centers in the inland of South Korea. To compute the geo-centers in South Korea: 1) firstly, we collected existing reaserch data related to digital map data. 2)Secondly, we analyzed a geological center and data collection examples of Korea and other nations-the Europe and America. 3) Thirdly, we carried out numerous processes to build a geodatabase, short for geograhic database, so that GIS analysis and the constructed geodatabase is covered within the inland in South Korea. Where geodatabase is a kind of spatial database. 4) Fourthly, in order to determine the geographical center, we supposed that the condition of continental surface is the plane of homogeneous or irregular density. 5) Consequently, we chose a few resonable conditions and produced a variety of geographical centers that is geometric and gravitational in South Korea. As a result of the analysis, center points are massed to southern part of Chungbuk province, Korea.

• Economic and Environmental Geology
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• v.40 no.3 s.184
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• pp.295-306
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• 2007

In this study, we predicted areas vulnerable to ground subsidence near abandoned underground coal mine at Sam-cheok City in Korea using a probability (frequency ratio) model with Geographic Information System (GIS). To extract the factors related to ground subsidence, a spatial database was constructed from a topographical map, geo-logical map, mining tunnel map, land characteristic map, and borehole data on the study area including subsidence sites surveyed in 2000. Eight major factors were extracted from the spatial analysis and the probability analysis of the surveyed ground subsidence sites. We have calculated the decision coefficient ($R^2$) to find out the relationship between eight factors and the occurrence of ground subsidence. The frequency ratio model was applied to deter-mine each factor's relative rating, then the ratings were overlaid for ground subsidence hazard mapping. The ground subsidence hazard map was then verified and compared with the surveyed ground subsidence sites. The results of verification showed high accuracy of 96.05% between the predicted hazard map and the actual ground subsidence sites. Therefore, the quantitative analysis of ground subsidence near abandoned underground coal mine would be possible with a frequency ratio model and a GIS.

• Economic and Environmental Geology
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• v.40 no.4
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• pp.445-459
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• 2007

Superconducting Gravimeter(SG) was installed and has been successfully operated at MunGyung, Kyungsang province in Korea in March 2005. It was registered as the 21st observatory of the Global Geodynamics Project. Since SG can precisely measure the gravity variations below the 1mHz frequency band, it has the outstanding capability to sense and resolve many different periodic gravity components from each other. From the raw data collected between 18 March 2005 and 21 February 2006 diurnal and semi-diurnal tidal band's residual gravity components were analyzed. During this process, the instrumental noises, air pressure, and ground water corrections were carried out. Values of $-3.18nm/s^2/hPa\;and\;17nm/s^2/m$ were used respectively in the air pressure and groundwater corrections. Hartmann-Wenzel and Whar-Dehant Earth tide models were adopted to compute the residual gravity for Q1, O1, P1, K1, M2, N2, S2, K2 tidal bands. For the ocean loading correction, SCW80, FES952, and FES02 models were used and compared. As a result, FES02 ocean loading model has shown the best match for the data processing at MunGyung SG MunGyung SG gravity was compared with GRACE satellite gravity. The correlation coefficient between the two gravity after groundwater correction was 0.628, which is higher than before ground water correction. To evaluate sensitivity at MunGyung SG gravity statition, the gravity data measured during 2005 Indodesian earthquake was compared with STS-2 broad band seismometer data. The result clearly revealed that the SG could recorded the same period of earthquake with seismometer event and a few after-shock events those were detected by seismometer.

• Journal of the Korean earth science society
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• v.34 no.3
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• pp.195-208
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• 2013

We employed electrical resistivity and optical borehole imaging methods to identify underground cavities and determine ground subsidence rate at the study area affected by land subsidence due to abandoned underground mines. At the study site 1, the anomalous zones of low resistivity ranging between 100 ohm-meter and 150 ohm-meter were observed and confirmed as an abandoned underground mine by subsequent borehole drilling and optical borehole imaging. Although the electrical resistivity survey was unavailable due to the paved surface of the study site 2, we were able to locate another abandoned underground mine with the collapsed mine shaft based on the distribution of the ore veins and confirmed it with borehole drilling. In addition, we measured vertical displacements of underground features indicating underground subsidence by conducting optical borehole imaging 6 times over a period of 43 days at the study site 2. The displacement magnitude at the deep segment caused by subsidence appeared to be 3 times larger than those at the shallow segment. Similarly, the displacement duration at the deep segment was 4 times longer than those at the shallow segment. Therefore, the combination of electrical resistivity and optical borehole imaging methods can be effectively applicable to detect and monitor ground subsidence caused by underground cavities.