• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.10 no.4
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• pp.299-312
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• 2000

The response of an embedded body to dynamic loads is greatly influenced by the reactions of the soil to the motion of the body. The properties of the soil surrounding embedded bodies (e.g., piles) may be different than those of the far-field for a variety of reasons. It may be weakened or strengthened according to the method of installation of piles, or altered due to applying one of the soil strengthening technique (e.g., electrokinetic treatment of soil, El Naggar et al. 1998). In all these cases, the shear strength of the soils and its shear modulus vary gradually in the radial direction, resulting in a radially inhomogeneous soil layer. This paper describes an analysis to compute vertical and torsional dynamic soil reactions of a radially inhomogeneous soil layer with a circular hole. These soil reactions could then be used to model the soil resistance in the analysis of the pile vibration under dynamic loads. The soil layer is considered to have a piecewise, radial variation for the complex shear modulus. The model is developed for soil layers improved using the electrokinetic technique but can be used for other situations where the soil properties vary gradually in the radial direction (strengthened or weakened). The soil reactions (impedance functions) are evaluated over a wide range of parameters and compared with those obtained from other solutions. A parametric study was performed to examine the effect of different soil improvement parameters on vertical and torsional impedance functions of the soil. The effect of the increase in the shear modulus and the width of the improved zone is investigated.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.34 no.5
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• pp.529-545
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• 2023

The coupled soil-pile-structure seismic response is recently in the spotlight of researchers because of its extensive applications in the different fields of engineering such as bridges, offshore platforms, wind turbines, and buildings. In this paper, a simple analytical model is developed to evaluate the dynamic performance of seismically isolated bridges considering triple interactions of soil, piles, and bridges simultaneously. Novel expressions are proposed to present the dynamic behavior of pile groups in inhomogeneous soils with various shear modulus along with depth. Both cohesive and cohesionless soil deposits can be simulated by this analytical model with a generalized function of varied shear modulus along the soil depth belonging to an inhomogeneous stratum. The methodology is discussed in detail and validated by rigorous dynamic solution of 3D continuum modeling, and time history analysis of centrifuge tests. The proposed analytical model accuracy is guaranteed by the acceptable agreement between the experimental/numerical and analytical results. A comparison of the proposed linear model results with nonlinear centrifuge tests showed that during moderate (frequent) earthquakes the relative differences in responses of the superstructure and the pile cap can be ignored. However, during strong excitations, the response calculated in the linear time history analysis is always lower than the real conditions with the nonlinear behavior of the soil-pile-bridge system. The current simple and efficient method provides the accuracy and the least computational costs in comparison to the full three-dimensional analyses.

• Korean Journal of Remote Sensing
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• v.11 no.3
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• pp.117-127
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• 1995

In this paper several methods for retriving appropriate values of effective soil moisture contents from natural soil surfaces are introduced and compared each other. The soil medium has usually a nonuniform moisture profile; i.e., relatively dry at the top layer and relatively wet at the bottom layer. The effective soil moisture represents the quantitative value of soil moisture of the inhomogeneous soil medium in an average sense. A simple method is an arithmetic averaging of soil moisture values obtained from several layers of a soil surface. Otherwise, the penetration depths can be computed from a homogeneous and an inhomogeneous soil surfaces and compared in order to obtain the effective soil mosture. The other method is to obtain the effective soil moisture by comparing the reflectivities from both of a homogeneous and an inhomogeneous surfaces. Those methods are compared and the reflectivity technique is examined in more detail since the rader scattering is dominated by the reflectivity instead of the penetration.

• Journal of the Korea Institute of Military Science and Technology
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• v.2 no.1
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• pp.30-37
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• 1999

Transmissivity and the signal loss in soil are computed. An electric field expression for the inhomogeneous complex media modelled by two layers is shown as an integral form. Volume scattering occurs in inhomogeneous media, and iterative Born approximation is used to analyze this scattering effect. The degree of randomness is controlled by specifying the variance and correlation length. Expression for the transmissivity and the signal loss is presented as the parameter of soil moisture contents, soil particle radius, temperature and frequency. The analysis shows that big deviation in signal loss depends on the temperature variation remarkably and the physical reason of unusual level is explained.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.36 no.2
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• pp.167-181
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• 2024

The soil-structure relative stiffness is a key factor affecting the seismic response of underground structures. It is of great significance to study the soil-structure relative stiffness for the soil-structure interaction and the seismic disaster reduction of subway stations. In this paper, the dynamic shear modulus ratio and damping ratio of an inhomogeneous soft soil site under different buried depths which were obtained by a one-dimensional equivalent linearization site response analysis were used as the input parameters in a 2D finite element model. A visco-elasto-plastic constitutive model based on the Mohr-Coulomb shear failure criterion combined with stiffness degradation was used to describe the plastic behavior of soil. The damage plasticity model was used to simulate the plastic behavior of concrete. The horizontal and vertical relative stiffness ratios of soil and structure were defined to study the influence of relative stiffness on the seismic response of subway stations in inhomogeneous soft soil. It is found that the compression damage to the middle columns of a subway station with a higher relative stiffness ratio is more serious while the tensile damage is slighter under the same earthquake motion. The relative stiffness has a significant influence on ground surface deformation, ground acceleration, and station structure deformation. However, the effect of the relative stiffness on the deformation of the bottom slab of the subway station is small. The research results can provide a reference for seismic fortification of subway stations in the soft soil area.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Illuminating and Electrical Installation Engineers
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• v.29 no.4
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• pp.95-101
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• 2015

This paper presents experimental results about characteristics of soil discharge as a function of moisture content when the $1.2/50{\mu}s$ lightning impulse voltage is applied. The laboratory experiments, for this study, were carried out based on factors affecting the transient behavior in soils. The electrical breakdown in soils was measured over a 0-6% range of moisture content for sands and a 0-4% range of moisture content for gravels. Needle-plane electrode systems was used As a result, the conduction current prior to ionization growth in dry soil is a little, but it in wet soil is increased with the applied voltage because the wet soil particles act as conductors. The soil impedance curves show an abrupt reduction just after breakdown. The general tendency measured in different soils is that the higher the water content, the lower the breakdown voltage and the shorter the time-lag to breakdown.

• Proceedings of the Computational Structural Engineering Institute Conference
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• 1999.10a
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• pp.257-266
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• 1999

This paper presents a method of seismic analysis for a cylindrical liquid storage structure on/in horizontally layered half.space considering the effects of the interior fluid and exterior soil medium in the frequency domain. To capture the essence of fluid-structure-soil interaction effects effectively, a mixed finite element with two-field (u, p) approximation is employed to model the compressive inviscid fluid, while the structure and soil medium are presented by the 3-D axisymmetric finite elements and dynamic infinite elements. The present FE-based method can be applied to the system with complex geometry of fluid region as well as with inhomogeneous near-field soil medium, since it can directly model both the fluid and the soil. For the purpose of verification, dominant peak frequencies in transfer functions for horizontal motions of cylindrical fluid storage tanks with rigid massless foundation on a homogeneous viscoelastic half.space are compared with those by two different added mass approaches for the fluid motion. The comparison indicates that the Present FE-based methodology gives accurate solution for the fluid-structure-soil interaction problem. Finally, as a demonstration of versatility of the present study, a seismic analysis for a real-scale LNG storage tank embedded in layered half.space is carried out, and its member forces along the height of the structure are compared with those by an added mass approach developed by the present writers.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.16 no.6
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• pp.609-618
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• 2018

A new mechanical model for predicting the vibration of a pipe pile embedded in longitudinally layered visco-elastic media with radial inhomogeneity is proposed by extending Novak's plain-strain model and complex stiffness method to consider viscous-type damping. The analytical solutions for the dynamic impedance, the velocity admittance and the reflected signal of wave velocity at the pile head are also derived and subsequently verified by comparison with existing solutions. An extensive parametric analysis is further performed to examine the effects of shear modulus, viscous damping coefficient, coefficient of disturbance degree, weakening or strengthening range of surrounding soil and longitudinal soft or hard interbedded layer on the velocity admittance and the reflected signal of wave velocity at the pile head. It is demonstrated that the proposed model and the obtained solutions provide extensive possibilities for practical application compared with previous related studies.

• Journal of applied mathematics & informatics
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• v.6 no.3
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• pp.809-822
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• 1999

We consider the mathematical model of a resource-based autotroph-herbivore system where diffusion of nutrient within the soil is taken into account. We have derived the conditions for the existence of steady-state to the system and studied the stability and instability of the patially homogeneous case. Then we have introduced the diffusion term to the system and studied the qualitative behabviour of the spatially inhomogeneous case. Finally we have discussed the salient features of the analytical results giving also the ecological interpretations.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.12 no.5
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• pp.849-862
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• 2017

With growing interests in using bacterial biopolymers in geotechnical practices, identifying mechanical properties of soft gel-like biopolymers is important in predicting their efficacy in soil modification and treatment. As one of the promising candidates, dextran was found to be produced by Leuconostoc mesenteroides. The model bacteria utilize sucrose as working material and synthesize both soluble and insoluble dextran which forms a complex and inhomogeneous polymer network. However, the traditional rheometer has a limitation to capture in situ properties of inherently porous and inhomogeneous biopolymers. Therefore, we used the particle tracking microrheology to characterize the material properties of the dextran polymer. TEM images revealed a range of pore size mostly less than $20{\mu}m$, showing large pores > $2{\mu}m$ and small pores within the solid matrix whose sizes are less than $1{\mu}m$. Microrheology data showed two distinct regimes in the bacterial dextran, purely viscous pore region of soluble dextran and viscoelastic region of the solid part of insoluble dextran matrix. Diffusive beads represented the soluble dextran dissolved in an aqueous phase, of which viscosity was three times higher than the growth medium viscosity. The local properties of the insoluble dextran were extracted from the results of the minimally moving beads embedded in the dextran matrix or trapped in small pores. At high frequency (${\omega}>0.2Hz$), the insoluble dextran showed the elastic behavior with the storage modulus of ~0.1 Pa. As frequency decreased, the insoluble dextran matrix exhibited the viscoelastic behavior with the decreasing storage modulus in the range of ${\sim}0.1-10^{-3}Pa$ and the increasing loss modulus in the range of ${\sim}10^{-4}-1\;Pa$. The obtained results provide a compilation of frequency-dependent rheological or viscoelastic properties of soft gel-like porous biopolymers at the particular conditions where soil bacteria produce bacterial biopolymers in subsurface.