• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.11 no.6
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• pp.847-865
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• 2016

In this study, a series of geotechnical centrifugal tests were conducted to investigate the effectiveness of settlement control of two types of rigid pile structure embankments (PRSE) in collapsible loess under high-speed railway embankments. The research results show that ground reinforcement is required to reduce the post-construction settlement and settlement rate of the embankments. The rigid pile structure embankments using rigid piles can substantially reduce the embankment settlement in the construction of embankments on collapsible loess, and the efficiency in settlement reduction is affected by the pile spacing. The pile-raft structure embankments (PRSE) have much stronger ability in terms of the effectiveness of settlement control, while the pile-geogrid structure embankments (PGSE) provides rapid construction as well as economic benefits. Rational range of pile spacing of PRSE and PGSE are suggested based on the requirements of various railways design speeds. Furthermore, the time effectiveness of negative skin friction of piles and the action of pile-cap setting are also investigated. The relevant measures for improving the bearing capacity and two parts of transition zone forms as positive control mean have been suggested.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.8 no.2
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• pp.283-303
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• 2015

To research and analyze the differential settlements of foundations specifically, site investigations of existing railways and metro were firstly carried out. Then, the centrifugal test was used to observe differential settlements in different position between foundations on the basis of investigation. The theoretical model was established according to the stress diffusion method and Fourier method to establish an analytical solution of embankment differential settlement between different foundations. Finally, theoretical values and experimental values were analyzed comparatively. The research results show that both in horizontal and vertical directions, evident differential settlement exists in a limited area on both sides of the vertical interface between different foundations. The foundation with larger elastic modulus can transfer more additional stress and cause relatively less settlement. Differential settlement value decreases as the distance to vertical interface decreases. In the vertical direction of foundation, mass differential settlement also exists on both sides of the vertical interface and foundation with larger elastic modulus can transfer more additional stress. With the increase of relative modulus of different foundations, foundation with lower elastic modulus has larger settlement. Meanwhile, differential settlement is more obvious. The main error sources in theoretical and experimental values include: (a) different load form; (b) foundation characteristics differences; (c) modulus conversion; (d) effect of soil internal friction.

• Proceedings of the Korean Geotechical Society Conference
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• 2006.10a
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• pp.430-433
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• 2006

Damage to earth structures for roads, railways and residential areas, as well as dams and river levees, during the 2004 Niigata-ken Chuetsu earthquake in Japan, and their rehabilitation works are overviewed. Several influential factors are pointed out, such as a) heavy rainfall preceding the earthquake, b) large aftershocks, c) geological conditions for subsoil including existence of liquefiable layers, d) compaction degrees for embankment, and e) drainage capacity from subsoil/embankments. It is also reported that, in the reconstruction works of damaged roads and railways, preferred use of geogrid-reinforced soil retaining walls was implemented.

• Journal of the Korean Geosynthetics Society
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• v.20 no.1
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• pp.1-8
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• 2021

In urban areas, structures are installed deep underground in the lower part of the structure to utilize space. Therefore, a retaining wall is used to prevent earth pressure from the ground when constructing a structure. Due to the development of construction technology, retaining wall applied to excavation work are used to prevent danger such as falling rocks and landslides in temporary facilities when construction or retaining walls are installed. In general, the application of a retaining wall to a temporary facility during the embankment construction is the case of expanding an existing roads or railways. Therefore, it is necessary to study the retaining wall applied to the embankment construction such as the double-track site of the high-speed railway. In this study, two types of common one row H-pile retaining wall and two types of IER retaining wall were analyzed, and the stability of the retaining wall applied to the construction of double-track of the high-speed railway was analyzed. The earth retaining wall is a construction method that combines forced pile applied to the stabilization of the slope with the wall of the earth retaining wall. As a result of the analysis, the IER retaining wall had maximum lateral displacement of 19.0% compared to the type with H-plie installed only in the front while dynamic load was applied. In addition, the slower the speed of high-speed railway, the more displacement occurred, and the results show that more caution is needed when designing the ground in low-speed sections.

• Wind and Structures
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• v.35 no.5
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• pp.309-322
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• 2022

Due to the complex terrain around high-speed railways, the windbreaks were established along different landforms, resulting in irregular windbreak transition regions between different subgrade infrastructures (flat ground, cutting, embankment, etc). In this paper, the effect of a windbreak transition on the wind flow around railways subjected to crosswinds was studied. Wind tunnel testing was conducted to study the wind speed change around a windbreak transition on flat ground with a uniform wind speed inflow, and the collected data were used to validate a numerical simulation based on a detached eddy simulation method. The validated numerical method was then used to investigate the effect of the windbreak transition from the flat ground to cutting (the "cutting" is a railway subgrade type formed by digging down from the original ground) for three different wind incidence angles of 90°, 75°, and 105°. The deterioration mechanism of the flow fields and the reasons behind the occurrence of the peak wind velocities were explained in detail. The results showed that for the windbreak transition on flat ground, the impact was small. For the transition from the flat ground to the cutting, the influence was relatively large. The significant increase in the wind speeds was due to the right-angle structure of the windbreak transition, which resulted in sudden changes of the wind velocity as well as the direction. In addition, the height mismatch in the transition region worsened the protective effect of a typical windbreak.

• Journal of Environmental Impact Assessment
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• v.13 no.6
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• pp.295-305
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• 2004

After the Rio declaration on environment and development in 1992, developed countries are undertaking "environmentally sustainable transportation (EST)" projects. To meet the needs for EST, current transportation policies in Korea are rapidly reforming and one of its concerns is modernizing and upgrading railway freight system. Planning new railroad construction projects is increasing and subsequent environmental impact assessment (EIA) demands improvements, especially in both the EIA and decision making systems. In this paper, we discuss the present status of EIA for railroad construction projects, especially, by analyzing the EIA documents for the last six years. The EIA for railroad construction projects accounts for only 4.9% of total 918 project EIAs during 1998-2003, and the portion is gradually increasing. Major environmental concerns for EIA in railroad construction projects were geomorphological and ecological changes, protection of rare organisms, air pollution, water pollution, waste management, and noise, etc. We compared characteristics of environmental impacts of railroad construction with those of vehicle road construction, based on environmental and construction-planning indicators appeared in Environmental Impact Statements. Railroad construction usually requires longer tunnels and bridges for a given length than those for vehicle road construction. In addition, the amounts of geomorphological and ecological changes (road-cutting, embankment, devegetation, etc.) in railroad construction were generally less than 50% of those in vehicle road construction. To develop environmentally friendly railway systems, monitoring studies for environmental impacts of railroads such as habitat fragmentation and road kills, dispersal of alien plants, tunnelling effects on groundwater and vegetation, and noise impacts are highly recommended.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Railway
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• v.20 no.2
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• pp.248-256
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• 2017

Groundwater drawdown was pointed out as one of the causes of induced settlement on high speed railways, especially concrete track. In this study, the effect of groundwater variation on settlement was evaluated through a comparison of field measurements with numerical analysis results. A trial and error method, i.e., repeated numerical analyses by changing material properties, was used to calibrate the model. The model was applied to investigate the effect of groundwater drawdown, thickness of soft layer, and embankment height on residual settlement after concrete track completion. A soft layer thicker than 4m would result in more than 30mm of settlement; a detailed analysis of groundwater behavior thus should be conducted from the design stage to construction.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.16 no.6
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• pp.589-597
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• 2018

Centrifuge model tests were used to simulate pile-raft composite foundation and pile-geogrid composite foundation with different pile spacing for researching the time effect of negative skin friction of rigid piles in high-speed railways. The research results show that the negative skin friction has a significant impact on the bearing capacity of composite foundation. Pile-raft composite foundation has higher bearing capacity compared to pile-geogrid composite foundation to reduce the effect of negative skin friction on piles. Both the foundation settlement and negative skin friction have significant time effect. The distribution of skin friction can be simplified as a triangle along the pile. The neutral point position moves deeper in the postconstruction stage at larger pile spacing. For pile-geogrid composite foundation, the setting of pile-cap affects the position of neutral point in the post-construction stage. Reinforced cushion with geotextile may promote the better performance of cushion for transmitting the loads to piles and surrounding soils. Arching effect in the cushion of the composite foundation is a progressive process. The compression of the rigid piles contributes less than 20% to 25% of the total settlement while the penetration of the piles and the compression of the bearing stratum below the pile tips contribute more than 70% of the total settlement. Some effective measures to reduce the settlement of soils need to be taken into consideration to improve the bearing capacity of pile foundation.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.17 no.11
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• pp.604-609
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• 2016

This study evaluated the long-term performance of RSR (Reinforced Subgrade for Railways) technology which increases the railway line capacity without the need for additional land. Its characteristics include the use of a short reinforcement with rigid wall, which make it possible to apply it in confined spaces. The 7m high and 40m long testbed employed to evaluate the long-term performance was designed and constructed near Jupo station on the Chang-hang line. This line, located close to a local bus route, had collapsed at the subgrade following heavy rainfall. The performance of the new type of subgrade was verified with long term measurements over a 2 year period including the surface and ground settlement, horizontal displacement of the wall, tensile strain of the reinforcement, and settlement of the rail top on the side track. Based on the results of the measurements made until now, we concluded that it had sufficient safety and serviceability for use as a railway subgrade. It is expected that RSR technology could be frequently used at sites which lack the necessary construction materials for an embankment and are located close to functional railway lines and boundaries, in order to settle civil complaints.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.35 no.10
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• pp.33-45
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• 2019

In this study, in order to recycle a large amount of rocks and weathered mudstones produced by civil engineering projects such as railways and highways, as materials for roadbeds or embankment materials, circumferential specimens with a diameter of 5 cm and a height of 10 cm were made. A mudstone that weathered rapidly during rainfall was collected from Pohang construction sites. The weathered mudstone passed through a 2 mm sieve. It was prepared with the cement ratio, the sand ratio, curing condition and curing days. Three specimens were prepared according to each condition and then the unconfined compressive test, durability test and SEM analysis were performed to evaluate the engineering properties of the cemented soil. In the case of 28 days cured specimen, the strength of under-water cured specimens was 32-55% and the durability index was about 15% higher than air cured specimens. In addition, when the CR increased from 8% to 16%, the unconfined compressive strength (UCS) of pure mudstone cemented soil under water increased by about 1.6 times and the durability index increased by about 1.9 times. When the SR increased from 0% to 50%, the UCS of the specimen with SR = 10% was slightly less than or equal to specimen with SR = 0%. Then, as the SR became 30-50%, the UCS increased up to 51%. Unlike the UCS, the durability index increased continuously as the SR increased. As a result of SEM analysis, when SR was 50% rather than SR = 0%, the contact between sand particles increased and they were connected to each other. Such contact between these particles resulted in the increase of strength.