• Geomechanics and Engineering
• /
• v.34 no.2
• /
• pp.187-195
• /
• 2023

Intensive rainfall during the summer season in Korea has triggered numerous devastating landslides outside of downtown in mountainous areas. The 2D slope stability analysis that is generally used for cut slopes and embankments is inadequate to model slope failure in mountainous areas. This paper presents a new 3D slope stability formulation using the global sliding vector in the limit equilibrium method, and it uses an ellipsoidal slip surface for static and quasi-static analyses. The slip surface's flexibility of the ellipsoid shape gives a lower FS than the spherical failure shape in the Fellenius, Bishop, and Janbu's simplified methods. The increasing sub-columns of each column tend to increase the FS and converge to a steady value. The symmetrical geometric conditions of the convex turning corners do not indicate symmetrical failure of the surface in 3D analysis. Pseudo-static analysis shows that the horizontal seismic force decreases the FS and increases the mass volume at the critical failure state. The stability index takes the FS and corresponding sliding mass into consideration to assess the potential risk of slope failure in complex mountainous terrain. It is a valuable parameter for selecting a vulnerable area and evaluating the overall risk of slope failure.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
• /
• v.5 no.1
• /
• pp.37-55
• /
• 2013

An important issue in the design of soil-nailing systems, as long-term retaining walls, is to assess their stability during seismic events. As such, this study is aimed at simulating the dynamic behavior and failure pattern of nailed structures using two series of numerical analyses, namely dynamic time history and pseudo-static. These numerical simulations are performed using the Finite Difference Method (FDM). In order to consider the actual response of a soil-nailed structure, nonlinear soil behaviour, soil-structure interaction effects, bending resistance of structural elements and construction sequences have been considered in the analyses. The obtained results revealed the efficiency of both analysis methods in simulating the seismic failure mechanism. The predicted failure pattern consists of two sliding blocks enclosed by three slip surfaces, whereby the bottom nails act as anchors and the other nails hold a semi-rigid soil mass. Moreover, it was realized that an increase in the length of the lowest nails is the most effective method to improve seismic stability of soil-nailed structures. Therefore, it is recommended to first estimate the nails pattern for static condition with the minimum required static safety factor. Then, the required seismic stability can be obtained through an increase in the length of the lowest nails. Moreover, placement of additional long nails among lowest nails in existing nailed structures can be considered as a simple retrofitting technique in seismic prone areas.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
• /
• v.37 no.9
• /
• pp.5-12
• /
• 2021

Pseudo-static slope stability analysis method is widely used in engineering practice to calculate the seismic factor of safety of slope subjected to earthquake ground motions. Although the dynamic analysis method is well recognized to have the primary advantage of simulating the stress-strain response of soils, it is not often used in practice because of the difficult in estimating the factor of safety. In this study, a procedure which utilizes the dynamic analysis method to extract the transient dynamic factor of safety is devleoped. This method overcomes the major limitation of the pseudo-static method, which uses an empirically determined seismic coefficient to derive the factor of safety. The proposed method is applied to a slope model and the result is compared with that of the pseudo-static method. It is shown that minimum dynamic factor of safety calculated by the dynamic analysis is slightly larger than that determined from the pseudo-static method. It is also demonstrated that the dynamic factor of safety becomes minimum when the horizontal seismic coefficient and horizontal average acceleration are maximum.

• Korean Journal of Agricultural Science
• /
• v.47 no.4
• /
• pp.963-978
• /
• 2020

Earthquakes can induce a large number of landslides and cause very serious property damage and human casualties. There are two issues in study on earthquake-induced landslides: (1) slope stability analysis under seismic loading and (2) debris flow run-out analysis. This study aims to review technical studies related to the development and application of earthquake-induced landslide models (seismic slope stability analysis). Moreover, a pilot application of a physics-based slope stability model to Mt. Umyeon, in Seoul, with several earthquake scenarios was conducted to test regional scale seismic landslide mapping. The earthquake-induced landslide simulation model can be categorized into 1) Pseudo-static model, 2) Newmark's dynamic displacement model and 3) stress-strain model. The Pseudo-static model is preferred for producing seismic landslide hazard maps because it is impossible to verify the dynamic model-based simulation results due to lack of earthquake-induced landslide inventory in Korea. Earthquake scenario-based simulation results show that given dry conditions, unstable slopes begin to occur in parts of upper areas due to the 50-year earthquake magnitude; most of the study area becomes unstable when the earthquake frequency is 200 years. On the other hand, when the soil is in a wet state due to heavy rainfall, many areas are unstable even if no earthquake occurs, and when rainfall and 50-year earthquakes occur simultaneously, most areas appear unstable, as in simulation results based on 100-year earthquakes in dry condition.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
• /
• v.16 no.4
• /
• pp.51-61
• /
• 2000

This paper reviews fundamentals of a pseudo-static seismic design/analysis method for soil-reinforced segmental retaining walls. A comparative study on NCMA and FHWA seismic design guidelines, which are one of the most well known design guidelines for mechanically stabilized earth walls, was also performed. The results demonstrate that there exist significant discrepancies in the results of external stability analysis despite the same calculation model used in the two guidelines, due primarily to different seismic coefficient selection criteria. It is also demonstrated that the internal stability calculation model for NCMA guideline tends to yield larger seismic reinforcement force in the shallower reinforcement layers, resulting in an increased number of reinforcement layers at the top of reinforced wall and increased reinforcement lengths to ensure adequate anchorage capacity. The internal stability calculation model adopted by FHWA guideline, however, leads to redistribution of dynamic force to the lower reinforcement layers and thus results n an opposite trend of NCMA guideline. Findings from this study clearly demonstrate a need for more in-depth studies to develop a generally acceptable design/analysis method.

• Proceedings of the Korean Geotechical Society Conference
• /
• 2009.03a
• /
• pp.620-625
• /
• 2009

The seismic slope stability is most often evaluated by the pseudo-static limit analysis, in which the earthquake loading is simplified as static inertial loads acting in horizontal and/or vertical directions. The transient loading is represented by constant acceleration via the pseudostatic coefficients. The result of a pseudostatic analysis is governed by the selection of the value of the pseudostatic coefficient. However, selection of the value is very difficult and often done in an ad hoc manner without a sound physical reasoning. In addition, the maximum acceleration is commonly estimated from the design guideline, which cannot accurately estimate the dynamic response of a slope. There is a need to perform a 2D dynamic analysis to properly define the dynamic response characteristics. This paper develops the modified one-dimensional seismic site response analysis. The modified site response analysis adjusts the density of the layers to simulate the change in mass and weight of the layers of the slope with depth. Multiple analyses are performed at various locations within the slope to estimate the change in seismic response of the slope. The calculated peak acceleration profiles with depth from the developed procedure are compared to those by the two-dimensional analyses. Comparisons show that the two methods result in remarkable match.

• Proceedings of the Earthquake Engineering Society of Korea Conference
• /
• 2001.09a
• /
• pp.139-146
• /
• 2001

The seismic safety analysis were performed for the center-core rockfill dam(CCRD) The static and pseudo-static FEM analysis using seismic coefficient Method, and dynamic FEM analysis using Hachinohe earthquake wave(0.12g) were used for the seismic safety of CCRD. The results of seismic analysis were that the factor of safety of down slope was 1.5, horizontal displacement is about 14.3cm, and vertical displacement is 3.3cm at dam creast. The model dam did not show any seismic stability problems for 0.12g. And much more research is still necessary in seismic safety of CCRD.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Safety
• /
• v.31 no.4
• /
• pp.64-74
• /
• 2016

Recently, the seismic stability evaluation of concrete gravity dams is raised due to the failure of dams occurred by the Izmit, Turkey and JiJi, Taiwan earthquake in 1999. Dams failure may incur loss of life and properties around the dam as well as damage to dam structure itself. Recently, there has been growing much concerns about "earthquake - resistance" or "seismic safety" of existing concrete gravity dams designed before current seismic design provisions were implemented. This research develops three evaluation levels for seismic stability of concrete gravity dams on the basis of the evaluation method of seismic stability of concrete gravity dams in U.S.A., Japan, Canada, and etc. Level 1 is a preliminary evaluation which is for purpose of screening. Level 2 is a pseudo-static evaluation on the basis of the seismic intensity method. And level 3 is a detail evaluation by the dynamic analysis. Evaluation results on existing concrete gravity dams on operation showed good seismic performance under designed artificial earthquake(KHC earthquake).

• Geomechanics and Engineering
• /
• v.32 no.6
• /
• pp.639-652
• /
• 2023

Stepped earth slopes incorporated with anti-slide piles are widely utilized in landslide disaster preventions. Explicit consideration of the three-dimensional (3D) effect in the slope design warrants producing more realistic solutions. A 3D limit analysis of the stability of pile stabilized stepped slopes is performed in light of the kinematic limit analysis theorem. The influences of seismic excitation and surcharge load are both considered from a kinematic perspective. The upper bound solution to the factor of safety is optimized and compared with published solutions, demonstrating the capability and applicability of the proposed method. Comparative studies are performed with respect to the roles of 3D effect, pile location, pile spacing, seismic and surcharge loads in the safety assessments of stepped slopes. The results demonstrate that the stability of pile reinforced stepped slopes differ with that of single stage slopes dramatically. The optimum pile location lies in the upper portion of the slope around L_x/L = 0.9, but may also lies in the shoulder of the bench. The pile reinforcement reaches 10% universally for a looser pile spacing D_c/d_p = 5.0, and approaches 70% when the pile spacing reaches D_c/d_p = 2.0.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
• /
• v.33 no.7
• /
• pp.29-41
• /
• 2017

There are uncertainties about the seismic load caused by seismic waves, which cannot be predicted due to the characteristics of the earthquake occurrence. Therefore, it is necessary to consider these uncertainties by probabilistic analysis. In this paper, procedures to develop a fragility curve that is a representative method to evaluate the safety of a structure by stochastic analysis were proposed for cut slopes. Fragility curve that considers uncertainties of soil shear strength parameters was prepared by Monte Carlo Simulation using pseudo static analysis. The fragility curve considering the uncertainty of the input ground motion was developed by performing time-history seismic analysis using selected 30 real ground input motions and the Newmark type displacement evaluation analysis. Fragility curves are represented as the cumulative probability distribution function with lognormal distribution by using the maximum likelihood estimation method.