• Proceedings of the Korean Geotechical Society Conference
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• 2001.06a
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• pp.1-11
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• 2001

This Paper presents the result of a parametric study on the behavior of stiffened grid reinforced segmental wall resting on non-yielding foundation. The parametric study was conducted using the nonlinear finite element analysis. In the finite element analysis, the step by step construction of the wall such as backfill, block reinforcement, block/backfill and soil/reinforcement interfaces were carefully modeled. The mechanical behavior of stiffened grid reinforced segmental walls was then investigated based on the result of analysis with emphasis on the effect of reinforcement stiffness on the behavior of the wall. The results of analysis indicate that the horizontal wall displacement decrease; with increasing the reinforcement stiffness at a decreasing rate, and that the horizontal stress at the back of the reinforced soil block does not much vary with the reinforcement stiffness. It is also revealed that the calculated maximum vertical stress at the base of the reinforced soil block agrees well with that based on the Meyerhof distribution and that the reinforcement and the connection force are considerably smaller than what might be expected based on the current design assumptions. The implications of the findings from this study to current design approaches were discussed in detail.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.27 no.9
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• pp.25-36
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• 2011

The behavior of the dry-stone masonry retaining structure has been investigated via physical model test and numerical simulation. In the model test, the digital image analysis using PIV technique was employed to measure horizontal displacements in the backfill soils and retaining blocks. For finite element numerical analyses, the commercial code, ABAQUS, was used. The horizontal displacements observed in the model test showed that the development of the failure surface is progressive. Numerical results showed that in most cases horizontal earth pressure is distributed similarly to a conventional Rankine’s distribution. However, lower values of the internal friction angle of the backfill soils and interface friction angle in the front blocks produce irregularly nonlinear distribution of the horizontal earth pressure.

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

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.17 no.4
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• pp.15-25
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• 2001

본 고에서는 블록식 보강토 옹벽의 지진시 거동에 관한 유한요소해석 결과를 다루었다. 보강토 옹벽의 지진시 변위거동을 검토한 결과 벽체저부를 지점으로 하는 캔틸레버형태의 변위 거동을 보였으며 따라서 옹벽 상단부에서의 보강재 인장력 증가가 현저하게 나타나 벽체전반에 걸친 분포양상은 균등한 경향을 보였다. 한편, 지진하중으로 인한 증분유발인장력에 관하여 검토한 결과 기존의 보강토 옹벽 내진설계기준과 비교하여 정성.정량적인 측면에서 상당한 차이를 보였으며 내진설계기준이 전반적으로 과소평가 하는 것으로 나타났다. 아울러서, 내진설계측면에서 변위억제 방안에 관한 매개변수 연구결과 임의 조건에 있어서 최대의 보강효과를 나타내는 보강재 임계 강성과 포설길이가 존재하며 최적의 보강효과를 얻기 위해서는 이에 대한 종합적인 검토가 요구되는 것으로 나타났다. 본 고에서는 연구결과를 종합적으로 고찰하여 실무 적용관점에서의 주안점을 언급하였다.

• Proceedings of the KSR Conference
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• 2003.05a
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• pp.46-52
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• 2003

In this study, the full scale testing method of the geogrid-reiuorced soil Segmental Retaining Walll(SRW) under the simulated train loading were proposed in order to evaluate the applicability of reinforced soil SRW in railway embankment. The train loading was simulated by the design static wheel load and the impact coefficient due to the train passing velocity. This test was focused on the static performance of reinforced soil SRW in terms of the following measuring systems ; the horizontal earth pressure displacement acting on the facing block and the tensile strain along the geogrid. The data gathered from this full scale testing was compared with numerical analysis results by FLAC.

• Journal of the Korean Geosynthetics Society
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• v.4 no.2
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• pp.47-56
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• 2005

Recently, geosynthetic reinforced earth walls are gradually replacing conventional concrete retaining walls for reasons of economy, expediency of construction, and aesthetics. A number of reinforced soil walls having more than 10m heights have been constructed to make more effective development in the country. However, mistakes in design and construction of reinforced earth walls have resulted in many troubles such as failure of reinforced earth walls, horizontal deformationor breakdown of facings, and so forth during or after construction. In this paper, a case study on global sliding failure of a geogrid-reinforced tiered wall is carried out to investigate the causes of the failure and suggest the proper countermeasures. From the subsurface investigation and field instrumentation, It is found that the cause of the global sliding failure was occurred by decreasing of bearing capacity of foundation ground induced by infiltration of rainwater.

• Journal of the Korean Geosynthetics Society
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• v.6 no.1
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• pp.27-32
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• 2007

This paper describes the applicability of geogrid with I-type coupling system, which permits vertical displacement on back fill ground of the reinforced retaining wall and also minimize the damage between block and geogrid. The improvement of coupling method allowed the reduction of approximately 700 mm in the existing geogrid, and as a result, the tensile strength at the coupling joint showed approximately 53% of the maximum tensile strength. It is expected from the laboratory investigations that the coupling strength of geogrid with the combination of in-situ supporting material should be predominant in the field condition.

• Journal of the Korean Geosynthetics Society
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• v.5 no.3
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• pp.45-52
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• 2006

The collapsed cases are more and more increasing at the large scaled structures because of increasing of the risk due to natural disasters. The measuring instrument such as inclinometer, total station on reinforced-soil retaining wall has been used that displacement, settlement for stability assessment, maintenance and management of it. But because these has gotten many instability measuring factors for stability analysis of RRW, new system needs to complement disadvantage of existing system. In this study, we considered a application of Visual Monitoring System (VMS) to measure a displacement in face of wall through Lab. test about block assembly of segmental retaining wall during load test.

• Journal of the Korean Geosynthetics Society
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• v.2 no.2
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• pp.13-24
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• 2003

This paper presents the results of investigation on the effects of foundation stiffness and surface loading on the performance of soil-reinforced segmental retaining walls using the finite element method of analysis. A parametric study was performed by varying the foundation stiffness and the location of surface loading. The results of the analyses indicate that the wall deformation and reinforcement tensile load tend to increase with decreasing foundation stiffness with little variation in the horizontal and vertical stress distributions at the back and the base of the reinforced soil zone. Also revealed is that the increment of reinforcement tensile load due to the presence of surface load may be significantly over-estimated when using the conventional approach. Furthermore, the external stability should be carefully examined when a surface loading is present just behind the reinforced soil zone. The implications of the findings from this study to current design approaches are discussed in detail.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.24 no.9
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• pp.23-32
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• 2008

This paper presents the global stability of geosynthetic reinforced segmental retaining walls in tiered configuration. Four design cases of walls with different geometries and offset distances were analyzed based on the FHWA and NCMA design guidelines and the discrepancies between the different guidelines were identified. A series of global slope stability analyses were conducted using the limit-equilibrium analysis and the continuum mechanics based shear strength reduction method with the aim of identifying failure patterns and the associated factors of safety. The results indicated among other things that the FHWA design approach yields conservative results both in the external and internal stability calculations, i.e., lower factors of safety, than the NCMA design approach. It was also found that required reinforcement lengths are usually governed by the global slope stability requirement rather than the external stability calculations. Also shown is that the required reinforcement lengths for the upper tiers are much longer than those based on the current design guidelines.