• Geotechnical Engineering
• /
• v.14 no.2
• /
• pp.67-78
• /
• 1998

Microtunnelling is a technique applied to install a small-size tunnel in a soft cohesionless ground. In microtunnelling, a series of concrete tubular segments are pushed from a starting pit to power-line tunnel under a runway of JFK international airport at New York. During the microtunneling process, bentonite is jetted with very hyh pressure through a nozzle to advance disturbance in the subgrade caused by the pressurized bentonite in the aspects of subgrade stiffness. SASW measurements were performed on the runway above the center line of the shear wave velocity profiles. Besides the change of subgrade stiffness, the change of subgrade strength was also evaluated by the site-specific relationships between shear wave velocity and N value, which was determined by N values. The estimated N values gave a clue to the understanding of the change of subgrade strength.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
• /
• v.30 no.5
• /
• pp.67-75
• /
• 2014

In this paper, isotropically consolidated drained triaxial compression test device installed with bender elements is used to measure stress, stain, and shear wave velocity, from which the characteristics of shear strength and Poisson'ratio are investigated. The results show that there is a unique relationship between maximum shear modulus determined from shear wave velocity and effective vertical stress at failure, which is defined as the sum of vertical and radial stresses at failure. The correlation is very useful since it is possible to predict the shear strength and internal friction angle from shear wave velocity. In addition, Poisson's ratio is determined from measured axial and volumetric strains. It is demonstrated that the range of measured Poisson's ratio is between 0.15 and 0.6, and increases with the axial strain. The ratios at axial strains smaller than 0.2% corresponds to the range recommended in design codes, which are approximately from 0.3~0.35. However, at axial strains exceeding 1%, the measured ratios are between 0.5 and 0.6. It is therefore shown that use of ratios commonly used in practice will result in pronounced underestimation at large strains.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
• /
• v.13 no.5
• /
• pp.775-791
• /
• 2017

Surface wave techniques are widely used as non-invasive method for geotechnical site characterization. Field surface wave data are collected and analyzed using different processing techniques to generate the dispersion curves, which are further used to extract the shear wave velocity profile by inverse problem solution. Characteristics of a dispersion curve depend on the subsurface layering information of a vertically heterogeneous medium. Sometimes soft layer can be found between two stiff layers in the vertically heterogeneous media, and it can affect the wave propagation dramatically. Now most of the surface wave techniques use the fundamental mode Rayleigh wave propagation during the inversion, but this may not be the actual scenario when a soft layer is present in a vertically layered medium. This paper presents a detailed and comprehensive study using finite element method to examine the effect of soft layers which sometimes get trapped between two high velocity layers. Determination of the presence of a soft layer is quite important for proper mechanical characterization of a soil deposit. Present analysis shows that the thickness and position of the trapped soft layer highly influence the dispersion of Rayleigh waves while the higher modes also contribute in the resulting wave propagation.

• Proceedings of the Korean Geotechical Society Conference
• /
• 2005.10a
• /
• pp.352-359
• /
• 2005

In this study, seismic refraction survey and MASW at dam crest and down-hole test and cross hole test in the boring holes located in dam crest through the core are performed to fin out dynamic material properties, are needed to evaluate dynamic safety of rockfill dam using dynamic analysis method. From the field test and geophysical exploration, applied such as above, p-wave and s-wave velocity profile of each layer of dam body. Dynamic material properties, such as elastic modulus, shear modulus, poissong's ration, are obtained from p-wave and s-wave velocity profile and density profile from formation density logging test.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
• /
• v.16 no.6
• /
• pp.609-618
• /
• 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 the Korean Geotechnical Society
• /
• v.21 no.4
• /
• pp.71-81
• /
• 2005

Surface wave techniques were initially based on 2-D plane waves and were later improved to the techniques based the 3-D based cylindrical waves. However, body-wave interference, near-field effect and limited technology in surface wave measurements restricted the use of 3-D cylindrical waves to the 1-D evaluation of subgrade stiffness. In this study, by the numerical simulation of SASW measurements, the dispersion properties of surface waves including vertical, horizontal Rayleigh waves and Love waves were thoroughly investigated in the 3-D domain, and a new filter criteria to minimize the near-field effect was established, which led to CAP (common-array-profiling)-SASW technique. The CAP-SASW technique enabled the evaluation of subgrade stiffness fur a specific subgrade segment, not for a whole section of measurement array. Therefore, a contour plot of subgrade stiffness with a ground-truth quality can be obtained by the CAP-SASW technique. The procedure proposed in this study was verified by comparing the shear-wave velocity profiles with the shear-wave velocity profiles of downhole testing at two geotechnical sites.

• Journal of the Earthquake Engineering Society of Korea
• /
• v.11 no.4
• /
• pp.65-77
• /
• 2007

Site response analyses were performed based on equivalent linear technique using shear wave velocity profiles of 162 sites collected around the Korean peninsula. The site characteristics, particularly the shear wave velocities and the depth to the bedrock, are compared to those in the western United States. The results show that the site-response coefficients based on the mean shear velocity of the top 30m ($V_{S30}$) suggested in the current code underestimates the motion in short-period ranges and overestimates the motion in mid-period ranges. The current Korean code based on UBC is required to be modified considering site characteristics in Korea for the reliable estimation of site amplification. From the results of numerical estimations, new regression curves were derived between site coefficients ($F_{a}\;and\;F_{v}$) and the fundamental site periods, and site coefficients were grouped based on site periods with reasonable standard deviations compared to site classification based on $V_{S30}$. Finally, new site classification system and modification of design response spectra are recommended considering geotechnical characteristics in Korea.

• Journal of Advanced Research in Ocean Engineering
• /
• v.1 no.1
• /
• pp.1-13
• /
• 2015

Post-Katrina investigations revealed that most earthen levee damage occurred on the levee crest and landward-side slope as a result of either wave overtopping, storm surge overflow, or a combination of both. In this paper, combined wave overtopping and storm surge overflow of a levee embankment strengthened with high performance turf reinforcement mat (HPTRM) system was studied in a purely Lagrangian and meshless approach, two-dimensional smoothed particle hydrodynamics (SPH) model. After the SPH model is calibrated with full-scale overtopping test results, the overtopping discharge, flow thickness, flow velocity, average overtopping velocity, shear stress, and soil erosion rate are calculated. New equations are developed for average overtopping discharge. The shear stresses on landward-side slope are calculated and the characteristics of soil loss are given. Equations are also provided to estimate soil loss rate. The range of the application of these equations is discussed.

• Proceedings of the Korean Geotechical Society Conference
• /
• 2005.10a
• /
• pp.154-162
• /
• 2005

In this paper, site response analyses were performed based on equivalent linear technique using the shear wave velocity profiles of 162 sites collected around the Korean peninsula. The site characteristics, particularly the shear wave velocities and the depth to the bedrock, are compared to those in the western United States. The results show that the site-response coefficients based on the mean shear velocity of the top 30m ($V_{S30}$) suggested in the current code underestimates the motion in short-period ranges and overestimates the motion in mid-period ranges. Also the current Korean code based on UBC is required to be modified considering site characteristics in Korea for the reliable estimation of site amplification. From the results of numerical estimations, new regression curves were derived between site coefficients ($F_a$ and $F_v$) and the fundamental site periods, and site coefficients were grouped based on site periods in the regions of shallow bedrock. The standard deviations of the proposed method was reasonable compared to site classification based on $V_{S30}$. Finally, new site classification system is recommended based on site periods for regions of shallow bedrock depth in Korea.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
• /
• v.20 no.5
• /
• pp.371-384
• /
• 2020

A settlement prediction method based on shear wave velocity measurements and soil nonlinearity was recently developed and verified by means of centrifuge tests. However, the method was only applicable to heavily overconsolidated soil deposits under enlarged yield surfaces. In this study, the settlement evaluation method was refined to consider the stress history of the sublayer, based on an overconsolidation ratio evaluation technique, and thereby incorporate irrecoverable plastic deformation in the settlement calculation. A relationship between the small-strain shear modulus and overconsolidation ratio, which can be determined from laboratory tests, was adopted to describe the stress history of the subsurface. Based on the overconsolidation ratio determined, the value of an empirical coefficient that reflects the effect of plastic deformation over the elastic region is determined by comparing the overconsolidation ratio with the stress increment transmitted by the surface design load. The refined method that incorporate this empirical coefficient was successfully validated by means of centrifuge tests, even under normally consolidated loading conditions.