• Geophysics and Geophysical Exploration
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• v.9 no.1
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• pp.108-113
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• 2006

Urban conditions, such as existing underground facilities and ambient noise due to cultural activity, restrict the general application of conventional geophysical techniques. At a tunnelling site in an urban area along an existing railroad, we used the refraction microtremor (REMI) technique (Louie, 2001) as an alternative way to get geotechnical information. The REMI method uses ambient noise recorded by standard refraction equipment and a linear geophone array to derive a shear-wave velocity profile. In the inversion procedure, the Rayleigh wave dispersion curve is picked from a wavefield transformation, and iteratively modelled to get the S-wave velocity structure. The REMI survey was carried out along the line of the planned railway tunnel. At this site vibrations from trains and cars provided strong seismic sources that allowed REMI to be very effective. The objective of the survey was to evaluate the rock mass rating (RMR), using shear-wave velocity information from REMI. First, the relation between uniaxial compressive strength, which is a component of the RMR, and shear-wave velocity from laboratory tests was studied to learn whether shear-wave velocity and RMR are closely related. Then Suspension PS (SPS) logging was performed in selected boreholes along the profile, in order to draw out the quantitative relation between the shear-wave velocity from SPS logging and the RMR determined from inspection of core from the same boreholes. In these tests, shear-wave velocity showed fairly good correlation with RMR. A good relation between shear-wave velocity from REMI and RMR could be obtained, so it is possible to estimate the RMR of the entire profile for use in design of the underground tunnel.

• Journal of the Earthquake Engineering Society of Korea
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• v.18 no.2
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• pp.89-94
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• 2014

Spatial variations of a seismic wave are mainly wave passage and wave scattering. Wave passage effect is produced by changed characteristics of exciting seismic input motions applied to the bedrock. Modified input motions travel horizontally with time differences determined by apparent shear wave velocity of the bedrock. In this study, wave passage effect on the seismic response of a structure-soil system is investigated by modifying the finite element software of P3DASS (Pseudo 3-Dimensional Dynamic Analysis of a Structure-soil System) to apply inconsistent (time-delayed) seismic input motions along the soft soil-bedrock interface. Study results show that foundation size affected on the seismic response of a structure excited with inconsistent input motions in the lower period range below 0.5 seconds, and seismic responses of a structure were decreased considerably in the lower period range around 0.05 seconds due to the wave passage. Also, shear wave velocity of the bedrock affected on the seismic response of a structure in the lower period range below 0.3 seconds, with significant reduction of the seismic response for smaller shear wave velocity of the bedrock reaching approximately 20% for an apparent shear wave velocity of 1000m/s at a period of 0.05 seconds. Finally, it is concluded that wave passage effect reduces the seismic response of a structure in the lower period range when the bedrock under a soft soil is soft or the bedrock is located very deeply, and wave passage is beneficial for the seismic design of a short period structure like a nuclear container building or a stiff low-rise building.

• 한국지구물리탐사학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2007.06a
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• pp.237-240
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• 2007

The evaluation of shear modulus (or shear wave velocity) profile of site is very important in the various fields of geotechnical engineering. To obtain shear wave velocity profile, various in-situ seismic methods using surface waves have been developed. These surface wave based in-situ seismic methods have their own strength and weakness. In this study, new seismic site characterization method using the harmonic wavelet analysis of wave (HWAW) was proposed to overcome some of weaknesses in the existing surface wave based seismic site characterization methods. HWAW method which is based on time-frequency analysis using harmonic wavelet transform have been developed to determine phase and group velocities of waves. In order to estimate the applicability of HWAW method, field tests were performed. Through field applications and comparison with other test results, the applicability of the proposed method were verified.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.3 no.3
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• pp.189-206
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• 2011

Amplification based on empirical relations is widely used for seismic microzonation of urban centers. Amplifications are used to represent the site effects of a particular soil column. Many empirical correlations are available to estimate the amplification of seismic waves. These correlations are based on the ratio of shear wave velocity of foundation/rock to soil velocity or 30 m equivalent shear wave velocity ($Vs^{30}$) and are developed considering deep soil data. The aim of this work is to examine the applicability of available amplification relations in the literature for shallow engineering bedrock sites by carrying out site response studies. Shear wave velocity of thirteen sites having shallow engineering bedrock have been selected for the study. In these locations, the depth of engineering bedrock (> 760 ${\pm}$ 60 m/s) is matched with the drilled bore hole. Shear wave velocity (SWV) has been measured using Multichannel Analysis of Surface Wave survey. These sites are classified according to the National Earthquake Hazards Reduction Program (NEHRP) classification system. Amplifications for an earthquake are arrived for these sites using empirical relations and measured SWV data. Site response analysis has been carried out in SHAKE using SWV and using synthetic and real earthquake data. Amplification from site response analysis and empirical relations are compared. Study shows that the amplification arrived using empirical relations does not match with the site response amplification. Site response amplification is much more than empirical values for same shear wave velocity.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.20 no.6
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• pp.51-59
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• 2004

The evaluation of shear modulus is very important in various fields of civil engineering. In this paper, the site characterization method using HWAW method is applied to determine shear wave velocity profile of two test sites in order to verify the field applicability of HWAW method. Shear wave velocity profiles by HWAW method are compared with shear wave velocity profiles by SASW test and PS-Suspension Logging test. Through field applications, it is shown that HWAW method can minimize the effect of noise and lateral non-homogeneity of the site and determine detailed local shear wave velocity profile of site.

• Proceedings of the Korean Geotechical Society Conference
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• 2010.09a
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• pp.1110-1116
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• 2010

Void ratios are one of the key parameters for exact calculation of settlement of soft groundse. In the study, shear wave velocities of a soft ground were used to measure the field void ratio using bender elements sensors. The bender-element probes were installed in situ at the depths of 3, 5 and 8m on a pre-loading site near Incheon, Korea. During 90 days after installation, the changes of shear wave velocity and ground surface settlement were measured. The field void ratio was estimated from measured shear wave velocities. The void ratio estimated by the shear wave velocity measured by bender elements agrees well with the measured values in the field.

• Proceedings of the Korean Geotechical Society Conference
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• 2008.03a
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• pp.134-141
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• 2008

To evaluate the engineering properties of soil, the laboratory test always is carried out using samples obtained from the field. There are many studies to estimate the effect of sampling disturbance. The objective of this study appraises the disturbance using the shear wave velocity. The new shelby tube which three transducers are installed every 20cm interval is used. To laboratory tests, the large-scale consolidometer (calibration chamber) is used. During 1cm penetration, the shear wave velocity is measured by every transducer. The initial sampling disturbance is assessed through the velocity difference from bottom to right upside transducer. After finishing the sampling, the velocity is still measured every time to assess the soil disturbance in shelby tube itself. Through the measured velocity, the effect of disturbance is appraised. This study suggests that the sampling disturbance of shelby tube is effectively evaluated using shear wave velocity.

• Journal of the Korean Geophysical Society
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• v.9 no.3
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• pp.231-240
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• 2006

The crustal structure of the Korean Peninsula was investigated by analyzing phase velocity dispersion data of Rayleigh waves. Earthquakes recorded by three component broad-band velocity seismographs during 1999-2004 in South Korea were used in this study. The fundamental mode Rayleigh waves were extracted from vertical components of seismograms by multiple filter technique and phase match filter method. Phase velocity dispersion curves of the fundamental mode signal pairs for 14 surface wave propagation paths on the great circle in the range 10 to 80 sec were computed by two-station method. Treating the shear velocity of each layer as an independent parameter, phase velocity data of Rayleigh wave were inverted. All the result models can be explained by a rather homogeneous crust of shear-wave velocity increasing from 2.8 to 3.25 km/sec from top to about 33 km depth without any distinctive crustal discontinuities and an uppermost mantle of shear-wave velocity between 4.55 and 4.67 km/sec. Our results turn out to agree well with recent study of Cho et al. (2006 b) based on the analysis of seismic background noises to recover short-period (0.5-20 sec) Rayleigh- and Love-wave group velocity dispersion characteristics.

• Proceedings of the Korean Geotechical Society Conference
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• 2005.03a
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• pp.338-345
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• 2005

Recently, surface-wave methods have been widely used for site investigation due to economic advantage and improved reliability. Specially, the Spectral-Analysis-of-Surface-Wave (SASW) method has been used to evaluate soil properties in geotechnical engineering. In determination of subgrade stiffness by SASW measurements, only the vertical Rayleigh waves have been used. This study proposed a framework to determine shear-wave velocity profiles by using vertical and horizontal Rayleigh waves and Love wave all together. In addition, the Common-Array-Profiling(CAP) SASW method was employed, which subgrade stiffness of profile the local material under two fixed receivers. 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.

• Economic and Environmental Geology
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• v.52 no.6
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• pp.555-560
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• 2019

One-dimensional shear wave velocity structure of North Korea is constrained using short (2-sec) to long period (30-sec) Rayleigh waves generated from four seismic events in China. Rayleigh waves are well recorded at the five broadband seismic stations (BRD, SNU, CHNB, YKB, KSA) which are located near to the border between North and South Korea. Group velocities of fundamental-mode Rayleigh waves are estimated with the Multiple Filter Analysis and refined by using the Phase Matched Filter. Average group velocity dispersion curve ranging from 2.9 to 3.2 km/s, is inverted to constrain the shear wave velocity structures. Relatively low group velocity dispersion curves along the path between the events to BRD at period from 4 to 6 seconds may correspond to the sedimentary sequence of the West Korea Bay Basin (WKBB) in the Yellow Sea. The low velocity zone in deep layers (14-20 km) may be related to the deep sedimentary structure in Pyongnam basin. The fast shear wave velocity structure from the surface to the depth of 14 km is consistent with the existence of metamorphic rocks and igneous bodies in Nangrim massif and Pyongnam basin.