• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.21 no.2
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• pp.37-46
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• 2005

In the field of earthquake engineering, recent improvements in many areas, such as seismological source modeling, analysis of travel path effects, and characterization of local site effects on strong shaking, have led to significant advances in both code-based and more advanced procedures for evaluating earthquake ground motions. A missing link, however, is empirically verified design procedures fur assessing the effects of soil-structure interaction (SSI). Available Soil-Structure Interaction (SSI) analysis techniques range from simple substructure-type procedures to relatively sophisticated finite element procedures. The most common substructure approach for foundation-soil interaction is to use a frequency-dependent and complex-valued impedance function. This study uniquely evaluates impedance functions for two well-instrumented sites w significant inertial SSI effects using a system Identification technique. The system identification analysis results are then compared to predictions from a simple theoretical model to gain insight into the inertial interaction effect in the subject sites.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.20 no.9
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• pp.5-15
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• 2004

It is worthwhile to verify the vertical stress distribution in soil mass for rigorous design of foundation. A series of laboratory model tests were performed to investigate the Boussinesq's theory on vertical stress increment in sandy soil mass caused by surface loading. The test results were also compared with Boussinesq's theoretical values. The Boussinesq's theoretical values were always smaller than test results under the footing regardless of depth. Outside of the footing the values were larger than the measured stress at the depth of just footing width. The theory and the test showed similar results when the depth reached two and three times the footing width. The vertical stress decreased as the applied load increased. These trends were confirmed to be valid for the considered range of the relative density of sand and/or the width of footing. More accurate values can be acquired by correcting the theoretical values using these results when Boussinesq's theory is used.

• Proceedings of the Korean Geotechical Society Conference
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• 2008.03a
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• pp.343-358
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• 2008

Piles of a bridge pier are connected with a column through a pile cap(footing). Behavior of the pile foundation can be different according to the connection method between piles and the pile cap. This difference causes a change of the design method. Connection methods between pile heads and the pile cap are divided into two groups ; rigid connections and hinge connections. KHBDC(Korea Highway Bridge Design Code) has specified to use rigid connection method for the highway bridge. In the rigid connection method, maximum bending moment of a pile occurs at the pile head and this helps the pile to prevent the excessive displacement. Rigid methods are also good to improve the seismic performance. However some specifications prescribe that conservative results through investigations for both the fixed-head condition and the free-head condition should be reflected in the design. This statement may induce an over-estimated design for the bridge which have very good quality structures with casing covered drilled shafts and the PC-house contained pile cap. Because the assumption of free-head conditions (hinge connections) are unreal for the elevated pile cap system with multiple piles of the long span sea-crossing bridges. On the other hand, elastic displacement method to evaluate the pile reactions under the pile cap is not suitable for this type of bridges due to impractical assumptions. So, full modeling techniques which analyze the superstructure and the substructure simultaneously should be performed. Loads and stress state of the very large diameter drilled shaft and the pile cap for Incheon Bridge which will the longest bridge in Korea were investigated through the full modeling for rigid connection conditions.

• 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.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.27 no.10
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• pp.25-33
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• 2011

Suction buckets have been widely used for offshore structures such as anchors for floating facilities, and the foundations of offshore wind energy turbines. However, the design guidelines for suction buckets have not been clearly suggested. Therefore, this study performed the numerical analysis by using ABAQUS (2010) to evaluate bearing capacities and load-movement behaviors of the suction bucket in NC clay. For the numerical analysis, the depth ratio L/D (L=embedded length of skirt; D=diameter of a bucket) was varied from 0.25 to 1.0. The analysis results showed that the L/D ratio has a significant effect on the bearing capacity, and the vertical and horizontal capacities respectively increased by about 40% and 90%, when L/D ratio increased from 0.25 to 1.0. At the vertical loading, the bucket showed the similar failure mode with a deep foundation, so the shaft and toe resistances can be separately evaluated. At the horizontal loading, the bucket with L/D=O.25 showed the sliding failure mode and the bucket with $L/D{\geq}0.5$ showed the rotational failure mode.

• Proceedings of the Korean Geotechical Society Conference
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• 2008.10a
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• pp.748-753
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• 2008

Bi-directional load test is one of O-cell tests. The O-cell test is a system which may be used for performing static load tests on cast in situ reinforced concrete bored piles. The technique was devised and developed by Osterberg of Northwestern University(USA) and has been in use around the world. The principle of the method is that an O-cell is installed in a cast in situ bored pile base. Once the pile concrete reaches its design strength the cell is connected to an hydraulic pump and pressured. Pressurisation causes the cell to expand, developing an upward force on the section of pile above the cell loads, pile movements and strains within the pile then enable the capacity of the pile and its load settlement curves to be ascertained. Bi-directional load tests using O-cell are now becoming common practice around the world, particularly where the loads to be applied are high or where it is not convenient to perform top-down loading tests. In the study, calculate ultimate capacity of bi-directional load test using FEM and beam on elasto-plastic foundation theory.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.40 no.2
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• pp.95-103
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• 2024

The global increase in population and subsequent scarcity of terrestrial living spaces necessitates exploration of alternative habitats. Research into the development of underwater living areas provides promising avenues for the expansion of human living spaces and the use of marine environments. This study focuses on the failure envelope of suction caisson foundations subjected to combined loads in a marine setting, utilizing finite element analysis. The foundation is assumed to be embedded in clay characterized by a linear increase in undrained shear strength with depth, employing the von Mises constitutive model for the clay. The resulting failure envelope is represented as a tilted ellipse which expands as the undrained shear strength increases, maintaining a constant ratio between the major and minor axes. A comparative analysis of two suction caisson foundations with varying length-to-diameter ratios revealed that this ratio influences the dimensions of the failure envelope, with a tendency for the major-to-minor axis ratio to increase as the length-to-diameter ratio increases. These findings are critical for the design of suction caisson foundations in offshore environments.

• Proceedings of the Korean Geotechical Society Conference
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• 2000.11a
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• pp.463-470
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• 2000

In tunnel excavation by blast beneath the surface structures in urban area, the characteristics of ground vibration induced by blast and its influence on surface structures are analyzed by the field test and the numerical analysis on dynamic behaviors of the structure. According to the field test on the propagating characteristics of blast vibration through the rock mass and the concrete foundation pile. the attenuation index of peak particle velocity with distance shows the range of 1.7∼2.0 for the rock mass and the range of 2.0∼2.3 for the concrete pile. This shows that the blast vibration reduces more rapidly in the concrete pile. It is known from the numerical analysis on dynamic behavior of the structure that the coefficient of response, velocity ratio of structure response to input wave, is different according to the story of the structure. It can be said from this research that the characteristics of the ground vibration and the dynamic behavior of the structure should be well evaluated and be considered as important factors for safe blasting design especially in underground excavation at shallow depth in urban area.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.18 no.1
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• pp.29-39
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• 2019

In this paper, it was presented an investigation on the load-settlement and vertical stress analysis of the ring footings on the loose sand bed by conducting both laboratory model tests and numerical analyses. A total of twenty tests were conducted in geotechnical laboratory and numerical analyses of the test models were carried out using the finite element package Plaxis 3D to find the ultimate capacities of the ring footings. Moreover, the results obtained from both foregoing methods were compared with theoretical results given in the literature. The effects of the ring width on bearing capacity of the footings and vertical stresses along the depth were investigated. Consequently, the experimental observations are in a very good agreement with the numerical and theoretical results. The variation in the bearing capacity is little when $r_i/R_o$ <0.3. That means, when the ring width ratio, $r_i/R_o$, is equal to 0.3, this option can provide more economic solutions in the applications of the ring footings. Since, this corresponds to less concrete consumption in the ring footing design.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.26 no.1
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• pp.45-54
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• 2010

It is important to calculate the natural frequency of a piled structure in the design stage in order to prevent resonance-induced damage to the pile foundation and analyze the dynamic behavior of the piled structure during an earthquake. In this paper, a simple but relatively accurate method employing a mass-spring model is presented for the evaluation of the natural frequency of a pile-soil system. Greatly influencing the calculation of the natural frequency of a piled structure, the spring stiffness between a pile and soil was evaluated by using the coefficient of subgrade reaction, the p-y curve, and the subsoil elastic modulus. The resulting natural frequencies were compared with those of 1-g shaking table tests. The comparison showed that the natural frequency of the pile-soil system could be most accurately calculated by constructing a stiffness matrix with the spring stiffness of the Reese (1974) method, which utilizes the coefficient of the subgrade reaction modulus, and Yang's (2009) dynamic p-y backbone curve method. The calculated natural frequencies were within 5% error compared with those of the shaking table tests for the pile system in dry dense sand deposits and 5% to 40% error for the pile system in saturated sand deposits depending on the occurrence of excess pore water pressure in the soil.