• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.16 no.4
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• pp.375-384
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• 2018

Unconfined compressive strength (UCS) of high plasticity clayey soil mixed with 5 and 10 % of Portland cement and four chemical agents such as sodium hexametaphosphate, aluminum sulfate, sodium carbonate, and sodium silicate with 0, 5, 10, and 20% concentrations was comparatively evaluated. The individual and combined effects of the cement and chemical agents on the UCS of the soil mixture were investigated. The strength of the soil-cement mixture generally increases with increasing the cement content. However, if the chemical agent is added to the mixture, the strength of the cement-chemical agent-soil mixture tends to vary depending on the type and the amount of the chemical agent. At low concentrations of 5% of aluminum sulfate and 5% and 10% of sodium carbonate, the average UCS of the cement-chemical agent-soil mixture slightly increased compared to pure clay due to increasing the flocculation of the clay in the mixture. However, at high concentrations (20%) of all chemical agents, the UCS significantly decreased compared to the pure clay and clay-cement mixtures. In the case of high cement content, the rate of UCS reduction is the highest among all cement-chemical agent-soil mixtures, which is more than three times higher in comparison to the soil-chemical agent mixtures without cement. Therefore, in the mixture with high cement (> 10%), the reduction of the USC is very sensitive when the chemical agent is added.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.27 no.5
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• pp.5-15
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• 2011

Recent increase of large scale construction near costal area has also increased the application of soft ground treatment. As a result, solidification with cement and lime which increases stability and durability of soils, is frequently used for surface layer stabilization in soft ground site. While stabilization of very soft clay with high plasticity and compressibility has widely been studied, studies on silty clay with low plasticity and compressibility are relatively rare. In this study, after stabilizing low plasticity silty clay of Songdo area with cement and lime under various water contents, mixing ratio, and curing time, uniaxial compression test and plate load test were performed. Strength properties from both tests were considerably consistent. And trackability of construction equipment on the treated surface layer of dredged land was estimated. Finally, optimum mixing condition for Songdo silty clay was proposed.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.4 no.2
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• pp.135-150
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• 2012

This paper presents the study of the effect of microorganism Bacillus pasteurii on the properties such as Atterbergs' limit and unconfined compressive strength of cohesive soils. The results of this study reveal that the liquid limit and plasticity index for all clay soils decreased and the unconfined compressive strength increased. Decrease in plasticity index is very high for Kuttanad clay followed by bentonite and laterite. The unconfined compressive strength increased for all the soils. The increase was high for Kuttanad soil and low for laterite soil. After 24 h of treatment the improvement in the soil properties is comparatively less. Besides the specific bacteria selected Bacillus pasteurii, other microorganisms may also be taking part in calcite precipitation thereby causing soil cementation. But the naturally present microorganisms alone cannot work on the calcite precipitation.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.26 no.2
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• pp.97-115
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• 2024

In this paper, a database consisting of the dynamic shear modulus ratio and damping ratio test data of clay obtained from 406 groups of triaxial tests is constructed with the starting area of Xiong'an New Area as the research background. The aim is to study the nonlinear dynamic properties of clay in this area under cyclic loading. The study found that the effective confining pressure and plasticity index have certain influences on the dynamic shear modulus ratio and damping ratio of clay in this area. Through data analysis, it was found that there was a certain correlation between effective confining pressure and plasticity index and dynamic shear modulus ratio and damping ratio, with fitting degree values greater than 0.1263 for both. However, other physical indices such as the void ratio, natural density, water content and specific gravity have only a small effect on the dynamic shear modulus ratio and the damping ratio, with fitting degree values of less than 0.1 for all of them. This indicates that it is important to consider the influence of effective confining pressure and plasticity index when studying the nonlinear dynamic properties of clays in this area. Based on the above, prediction models for the dynamic shear modulus ratio and damping ratio in this area were constructed separately. The results showed that the model that considered the combined effect of effective confining pressure and plasticity index performed best. The predicted dynamic shear modulus ratio and damping ratio closely matched the actual curves, with approximately 88% of the data falling within ±1.3 times the measured dynamic shear modulus ratio and approximately 85.1% of the data falling within ±1.3 times the measured damping ratio. In contrast, the prediction models that considered only a single influence deviated from the actual values, particularly the model that considered only the plasticity index, which predicted the dynamic shear modulus ratio and the damping ratio within a small distribution range close to the average of the test values. When compared with existing prediction models, it was found that the predicted dynamic shear modulus ratio in this paper was slightly higher, which was due to the overall hardness of the clay in this area, leading to a slightly higher determination of the dynamic shear modulus ratio by the prediction model. Finally, for the dynamic shear modulus ratio and damping ratio of the engineering site in the starting area of Xiong'an New Area, we confirm that the prediction formulas established in this paper have high reliability and provide the applicable range of the prediction model.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.10 no.6
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• pp.827-836
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• 2016

The rate of softening is an important factor to determine whether the failure occurs along localized shear band or in a more diffused manner. In this paper, strength loss and softening rate effect depending on sensitivity are investigated for weakly cemented clays, for both artificially cemented high plasticity San Francisco Bay Mud and low plasticity Yolo Loam. Destructuration and softening behavior for weakly cemented sensitive clays are demonstrated and discussed through multiple vane shear tests. Artificial sensitive clays are prepared in the laboratory for physical modeling or constitutive modeling using a small amount of cement (2 to 5%) with controlled initial water content and curing period. Through test results, shear band thickness is theoretically computed and the rate of softening is represented as a newly introduced parameter, ${\omega}_{80%}$. Consequently, it is found that the softening rate increases with sensitivity for weakly cemented sensitive clays. Increased softening rate represents faster strength loss to residual state and faster minimizing of shear band thickness. Uncemented clay has very low softening rate to 80% strength drop. Also, it is found that higher brittleness index ($I_b$) relatively shows faster softening rate. The result would be beneficial to study of physical modeling for sensitive clays in that artificially constructed high sensitivity (up to $S_t=23$) clay exhibits faster strain softening, which results in localized shear band failure once it is remolded.

• Geotechnical Engineering
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• v.11 no.3
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• pp.37-42
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• 1995

The laboratory hydraulic conducti vita tests with rigid wall permeameter were performed to study the effects of waste leachate on the permeability of a marine clay. The marine clay and waste leachate for this study were sampled from Kimpo Wastefills, and the hydraulic gradients applied to the clay specimens aTe relatively high from 37.5 to 225. The test results show that the permeability of a marine clay is increased with increasing the concentration of leachate and with decreasing the hydraulic gradient. And also both the liquid limit and the plasticity index of the marine clay miRed with waste leachate decrease with increasing the concentration of leachate.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.29 no.6
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• pp.683-696
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• 2022

Dams are inevitably planned to be built on thick overburden with high permeability and deformability. The connection part between concrete cut-off wall in overburden and earth core in dam body is not only a key part of the anti-seepage system, but also a weak position. Large uneven settlement will be aroused at the concoction part. However, the interaction behavior and the scope of the connection part cannot be determined effectively. In this paper, numerical analysis of a high earth core dam built on thick overburden was carried out with large deformation FE method. The mechanical behavior of the connection part was detail studied. It can be drawn that there is little differences in dam integral deformation for different analysis method, but big differences were found at the connection part. The large deformation analysis method can reasonably describe the process that concrete wall penetrates into soil. The high plasticity clay has stronger ability to adapt to large uneven deformation which can reduce stress level, and stress state of concrete wall is also improved. The scope of high plasticity clay zone in the connection part can be determined according to stress level of soils and penetration depth of concrete wall.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.30 no.5
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• pp.461-469
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• 2022

One of the most important factors that should be considered for using any ground improvement technique is the stability of stabilized soil and the durability of the provided solution for getting the required engineering properties. Generally, most of the earth structures that are constructed on clayey soils are exposing movements due to the long periods of drying or wetting cycles. Over time, environmental changes may result in swells or settlements for these structures. In order to mitigate this problem, this research has been performed on mixtures of high plasticity clay with traditional additives such as lime, cement and non-traditional additives such as polypropylene fiber. The purpose of the research is to assess the most appropriate ground improvement technique by using commercially available additives for resisting the developed desiccation cracks during the drying process and resisting the volume changes that may result during wet/dry cycles as an attempt to simulate the changes of environmental conditions. The results show that the fiber-reinforced samples have the lowest volumetric deformation in comparision with cement and lime stabilized samples, and the optimum fiber content is identified as 0.38%. In addition, the desiccation cracks were not visible on the samples' surface for both unreinforced and chemically stabilized samples. Regarding cracks resistance resulting from the desiccation process, it is observed, that the resistance is connected with the fiber content and increases with the increase of the fiber inclusion, and the optimum content is between 1% and 1.5%.

• Journal of the Korean Geosynthetics Society
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• v.17 no.3
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• pp.9-18
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• 2018

The soil parameters important for the design of the soft ground are the compression index ($C_c$), the consolidation settlement and consolidation speed at the field. Compression index is obtained by laboratory consolidation test. In the laboratory consolidation test, sample disturbance always occurs. In order to correct the disturbance phenomena, the method of calculating the compression index proposed by Schmertmann (1955) is generally used. However, recent developments in sampling technology and Korean soil conditions are different from those proposed by Schmertmann. So it needs to be verified. In this study, each consolidation curve's cross void ratio is evaluated by doing consolidation test varying disturbance on high-plastic clay (CH), low-plastic clay (CL) and low-plastic silt (ML). The test results were $0.521e_0$ for low-plastic silt, $0.404e_0$ for low-plastic clay, and $0.458e_0$ for the high-plastic clay. This results were different from those of Schmertmann's suggested value of $0.42e_0$. Therefor we proposed a correction formula using the plastic index according to soil type. However, since the results of this study are limited test results, further studies on various korean soil are needed to suggest the compression index correction method according to the degree of plasticity index of soil.

• Journal of the Korean GEO-environmental Society
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• v.12 no.6
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• pp.43-51
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• 2011

Marine clays are widely distributed in Korean eastern, western and southern coastal areas. Understanding engineering characteristics of the soft ground is very important, whenever civil structures are constructed in those coastal areas. It is because the ground is composed of highly compressible marine clay. In this paper, the physical and compression characteristics of Incheon, Mokpo, Gwangyang and Busan marine clay were analyzed and the characteristics between western and southern coastal marine clays were compared. For this, test results of 1,471 samples from 114 sites were used. As a result, Incheon clay showed the lowest plasticity and the highest unit weight due to influx of silt from the Yellow River and the turn of the tide of Incheon area. However, Gwangyang clay showed highly compressible characteristic due to extensive reclamation. On the other hand, Mokpo and Busan clay showed partially similar levels of characteristics. The compression index of Mokpo and Busan clay was high more than twice in comparison with Incheon clay and that of Gwangyang clay was higher than seventy percents in comparison with Mokpo and Busan clay.