• Advances in environmental research
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• v.4 no.2
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• pp.105-117
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• 2015

The groundwater is a very important part of the environment and must be protected for the benefit of the present and future generation. The contamination of soil and groundwater by chemicals has become an increasing concern in the recent past. These chemicals enter the groundwater system by a wide variety of mechanisms, including accidental spills, land disposal of domestic and industrial wastes and application of agricultural fertilizers. Once introduced into an aquifer, these contaminants will be transported by flowing groundwater and may degrade water quality at nearby wells and streams. For improving the management and protection of groundwater resources, it is important to first understand the various processes that control the transport of contaminants in groundwater. Predictions of the fate of groundwater contaminants can be made to assess the effect of these chemicals on local water resources and to evaluate the effectiveness of remedial actions. In this study, an attempt has been made to investigate the behaviour of solute transport through porous media using laboratory experiments. Sodium chloride was used as a conservative chemical in the experiment. During the experiment, pulse boundary condition and continuous boundary conditions were used. Experimental results have been presented for conservative solute transport in the sand. The pattern of the break through curve remains almost same in all the cases of varying flow rate and initial concentration of conservative chemical.

• Water for future
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• v.29 no.2
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• pp.235-247
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• 1996

Meteorological and soil water content data measured from semiarid watersheds of Lucky Hills and Kendall during the summer rainy and winter periods were used to study the interrelationships between the controlling variables of the evapotranspiration, and to evaluate the effects of variables on daily actual evapotranspiration (ET) estimation. Simple and multiple linear regression (MLR) analyses were employed to evaluate the order of importance of the meteorological and soil water factors involved. The information gained was used for MLR model development. Theavailable energy and vapor pressure deficit were found to be the important variables to estimate actual ET (AET) for both periods and at both watersheds. Therefore, the important variables of evapotranspiration process in these semiarid watersheds appear to be simply the components of energy term in available energy and aerodynamic term in vapor pressure deficit of Penman potential evapotranspiration (PET) equation.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.22 no.3
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• pp.263-275
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• 2022

Structural collapses can occur as a result of a dynamic amplification of either, the building's seismic response or the ground shaking by local site effects; one of the reasons is a resonance effect due to the proximity of the structural elastic fundamental period TE and the soil fundamental period TS. We evaluate the vulnerability to resonance effects in Guadalajara, México, in a three-step schema: 1) we define structural systems in the building environment of western Guadalajara, in terms of their construction materials and structural components; 2) we estimate TE with different equations, to obtain a representative value in elastic conditions for each structural system; and, 3) we evaluate the resonance vulnerability by the analysis of the ratio between TE and TS. We observe that the larger the soil fundamental period, the higher the resonance vulnerability for buildings with height between 17 and 39 m. For the sites with a low TS, the most vulnerable buildings will be those with a height between 2 and 9 m. These results can be a helpful tool for disaster prevention, by avoiding the construction of buildings with certain heights and structural characteristics that would result in a dangerous proximity between TE and TS.

• Journal of The Korean Society of Agricultural Engineers
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• v.62 no.1
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• pp.117-126
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• 2020

The area of facility horticulture in Korea is increasing rapidly, the single-span pipe house which uses galvanized steel pipe as the main rafters occupies 78.7% of the facility area. Lightweight structures such as the single-span pipe house are vulnerable to meteorological disasters such as strong winds, economic losses of the state, local governments and farmers are continuing as construction does not meet the design standards. In order to minimize economic losses in the horticultural specialty facilities sector, the Rural Development Administration has been operating the horticultural disaster resilient standard for horticultural specialty facilities since April 2007. The only standard for the pipe connector is the disaster resilient standard, there is no standard for the uplift capacity of the house pipe foundation and the research on it is also insufficient. The purpose of this study is to investigate the characteristics of uplift capacity according to the foundation type, compaction ratio and embedded depth through soil box test. The results of the maximum uplift capacity according to the type, compaction ratio and embedded depth can be used as the basic data for the basic design of the pipe house conforming to the disaster resilient standard. Due to the limitation of soil box test, it may be different from the behavior of pipe house installed on site. In the future, the field test and the actual pipe house should be made and supplemented by comparing this result with the field test values.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.3 no.3_4
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• pp.297-313
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• 2012

This paper is intended to show the robustness and capabilities of a coupled boundary element-finite element technique for the analysis of vibrations generated by high-speed trains under different geometrical, mechanical and operation conditions. The approach has been developed by the authors and some results have already been presented. Nevertheless, a more comprehensive study is presented in this paper to show the relevance and robustness of the method which is able to predict vibrations due to train passage at the vehicle, the track, the free-field and any structure close to the track. Local soil discontinuities, underground constructions such as underpasses, and coupling with nearby structures that break the uniformity of the geometry along the track line can be represented by the model. Non-linear behaviour of the structures can be also considered. Results concerning the excitation mechanisms, track behaviour and sub-Rayleigh and super-Rayleigh train speed are summarized in this work.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.15 no.1
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• pp.1-8
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• 2018

A new site classification system and site coefficients based on local site conditions in Korea were developed and implemented as a part of minimum design load requirements for general seismic design. The new site classification system adopted bedrock depth and average shear wave velocity of soil above the bedrock as parameters for site classification. These code provisions were passed through a public hearing process before it was enacted. The public hearing process recommended to modify the naming of site classes and adjust the amplification factors so that the level of short-period amplification is suitable for economical seismic design. In this paper, the new code provisions were assessed using dynamic centrifuge tests and by comparing the design response spectra (DRS) with records from 2016 Gyeongju earthquake, the largest earthquake in history of instrumental seismic observation in Korea. The dynamic centrifuge tests were performed to simulate the representative Korean site conditions, such as shallow depth to bedrock and short-period amplification characteristics, and the results corroborated with the new DRS. The Gyeongju earthquake records also showed good agreement with the DRS. In summary, the new code provisions are reliable for representing the site amplification characteristic of shallow bedrock condition in Korea.

• Atmosphere
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• v.19 no.2
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• pp.155-168
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• 2009

Characteristics of seasonal mean diurnal temperature range (DTR) and their causes over South Korea are investigated using the 60 stations data of Korea Meteorological Administration from 1976 to 2005. In general, the seasonal mean DTR is greatest during spring (in inland area) and least during summer (urban and coastal area). The spatial and seasonal variations of DTR are closely linked with the land surface conditions (especially vegetation activity and soil moisture) and atmospheric conditions (cloud amount, precipitation, local circulation). The seasonal mean DTR shows a decreasing trend at the major urban areas and at the north-eastern part of South Korea. Whereas, it shows an increasing trend at the central area of the southern part. Decreasing and increasing trends of DTR are more significant during summer and fall, and during spring and winter. The decrease (increase) of DTR is mainly caused by the stronger increase of daily minimum (maximum) temperature than daily maximum (minimum) temperature. The negative effects of precipitation and cloud amount on the DTR are greater during spring and at the inland area than during winter and at the coastal area. And the effect of daytime precipitation on the DTR is greater than that of nighttime precipitation.

• International Journal of Highway Engineering
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• v.8 no.3 s.29
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• pp.115-127
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• 2006

The purpose of field monitoring system in KHC-Test Road is to provide the performance data for environmental loadings from pavement surface. Among them, water content reflectometer(WCR) are used for measuring the volumetric water content of pavement subgrades. However, WCRs are not well-calibrated based on the local field conditions. A need therefore exists for improving equations for predicting water content using the proper field and laboratory calibrations. Based on the study performed, calibrations based on various soil characteristics and density conditions are well fitted to the data from fields. So, it is recommended to use the suggested general calibration of WCR to the compacted subgrade soils in test road for predicting the volumetric water content.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.29 no.3
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• pp.29-40
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• 2013

Seismic response of single degree of freedom system supported by shallow foundation was analyzed by using nonlinear explicit finite difference element code. Numerical analysis results were verified with dynamic centrifuge test results of the same soil profile and structural dimensions with the numerical analysis model at a centrifugal acceleration of 20 g. Differences between the analysis and the test results induced by the boundary conditions of control points can be reduced by adding additional local damping to the natural born cyclic hysteretic damping of the soil strata. The analysis results show good agreement with the test results in terms of both time histories and response spectra. Thus, it can be concluded that the nonlinear explicit finite difference element code will be a useful technique for estimating seismic residual displacement, earthpressure etc. which are difficult to measure during laboratory tests and real earthquake.

• Journal of the Korean Geosynthetics Society
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• v.6 no.3
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• pp.17-23
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• 2007

To construct an ideal geosynthetic reinforced soil retaining wall (GRS-RW), the facing of the wall should be flexible enough to accommodate a large deformation of the supporting ground and to develop the large tensile force in reinforcements during wall construction as long as the stability is ensured, but should be rigid enough to be stiff and stable as well as durable and aesthetically acceptable for a long life time when the wall is in service. Facing conditions during the construction and service of the wall are quite different. So it is difficult to be satisfied all these conditions with the current construction method which is mainly used in reinforced wall construction in Korea. Most of this contradiction could be solved by the staged construction procedure. According to the results of cases and references analyses, stage construction procedures make it possible to accommodate large deformation of the supporting ground and backfill without losing the stability of the wall, and to derive the tensile strength of reinforcement causing deformation of the facing. When the facing is a full-height rigid one, it also appeared almost impossible to occur a local shear failure of the active zone, and pull-out failure of reinforcements. Therefore, GRS-RWs having a full-height rigid facing have been constructed by the staged construction procedures that matched well with the theory of reinforced soil, which had outstanding stability and durability, and thus could be used for railways and bridge abutments in Korea in the future.