• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.22 no.3
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• pp.237-244
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• 2020

To achieve a wide suction range, the low suction was imposed on compacted silt specimens by the axis translation technique and the high suction was imposed by the vapor equilibrium technique with saturated salt solutions. Firstly, the results of soil water retention tests on compacted silt show that the soil water retention curves in terms of gravimetric water content versus suction relation are independent of the dry density or void ratio in a high suction range. Therefore, triaxial tests on compacted silt with constant water content at high suctions can be considered as that with constant suction. Secondly, the results of triaxial shear tests on unsaturated compacted silt with the initial void ratio of about 0.75 show a strain-hardening behavior with a slightly shear contraction and then strain-softening behavior with an obviously dilation. As the imposed suction increases, the shear strength increases up to a peak value and then decreases when the suction is beyond a special value corresponding to the peak shear strength. The residual strength increases to fair value and those at high suctions are almost independent of imposed suctions. In addition, the contribution of suction to the strength of compacted silt would not diminish even in a high suction range.

• Journal of the Korean GEO-environmental Society
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• v.21 no.11
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• pp.21-26
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• 2020

Natural soil is composed of particles of various sizes, and the shear behavior which is a kind of mechanical behavior of the soil is affected by the particle size distribution. In addition, since the natural soil contains a large mixture of coarse and fine grained soil, it is difficult to clearly understand the shear behavior of the soil. Therefore, a ring shear test was conducted on sandy soils that has various particle size distribution in order to identify the effect of the distribution on shear characteristics of soils. At this time, sand and silt were used for coarse and fine grained soils, respectively, to make sandy soils by changing the silt content. Also the water was supplied during the test to confirm shear characteristics of sandy soils with various particle size distributions. The result shows that the shear strength increases as the silt content increases, and the strength decreases as the silt content increases over the sand. Besides, residual shear strength gradually decreases because of the silt content when the water is supplied.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.32 no.12
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• pp.59-67
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• 2016

The strength of frozen soils is affected by size and shape of particles, and the amount of ice and unfrozen water. The objective of this study is to characterize the unfrozen water content and the unconfined compressive strength of the frozen soils according to the degree of saturations and silt fractions. The specimens are mixtures of sand, silt, and water. The silt fractions (SF), which are the ratio of the silt weight ($W_{silt}$) to the sand weight ($W_{sand}$), are 10% and 30%. In addition, the degrees of the saturation are 5%, 10%, 15%, and 20%. The specimens are frozen under the temperature of $-10^{\circ}C$ conditions. The uniaxial compression tests are conducted for 24 hours, 48 hours, and 72 hours after freezing to determine proper freezing time. The freezing time of 24 hours is chosen because the unconfined compressive strengths of specimens after 24 hours freezing times are similar to each other. Furthermore, the unfrozen water content is monitored during freezing using the TDR system. The unfrozen water content increases with the increase of the silt fraction and degree of saturation. The unconfined compressive strength of the frozen soils exponentially increases with increasing the degree of saturation. This study shows that the amount of ice has more influence on the strength of the frozen soils than the amount of unfrozen water.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.32 no.6
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• pp.601-613
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• 2023

Low liquid limit silt, widely distributed in the middle and down reaches of Yellow River, has the disadvantages of poor grading, less clay content and poor colloidal activity. It is very easy to cause vehicle jumping at the bridge-embankment transition section when the low liquid limit silt used as the backfill at the abutment back. In this paper, a series of laboratory tests were carried out to study the physical and mechanical properties of the low liquid limit silt used as back filling. Ground granulated blast furnace slag (GGBFS) was excited by active MgO and hydrated lime to solidify silt as abutment backfill. The optimum ratio of firming agent and the compaction and mechanical properties of reinforced soil were revealed through compaction test and unconfined compressive strength (UCS) test. Scanning electron microscope (SEM) test was used to study the pore characteristics and hydration products of reinforced soil. 6% hydrated lime and alkali activated slag were used to solidify silt and fill the model of subgrade respectively. The pavement settlement regulation and soil internal stress-strain regulation of subgrade with different materials under uniformly distributed load were studied by model experiment. The effect of alkali activated slag curing agent on curing silt was verified. The research results can provide technical support for highway construction in silt area of the Yellow River alluvial plain.

• Journal of the Korean GEO-environmental Society
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• v.12 no.2
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• pp.23-33
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• 2011

In this paper, we got soil-water characteristic curve(SWCC) of Nak-Dong River's sand respectively as relative density 40%, 60%, 80% and content of silt 0%, 10%, 20%, 30%. As a result, the more the sand densify in the same silt content and the more the sand has silt in the same relative density, the change of volume water content was decreased. we have known effect of silt contents for SWCC and verified existing empirical formula of SWCC. As experiment results of soil-water characteristic curves compared to the empirical solutions, the results of van Genuchten(1980) and Fredlund & Xing(1994) were well-matched showing S type curves with experiment results. Especially the empirical solution of Fredlund & Xing showed almost same results of the coefficient of correlation($R^2$) equal to 0.99.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.31 no.3
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• pp.27-38
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• 2015

Triaxial tests on sand-silt mixture specimens under low and high confining pressures were performed to understand their shear behaviors. The fines content in the mixture is lower than the threshold value. A series of tests under different conditions including fines contents (0%, 9.8%, 14.7%, 19.6%), density of specimen (controlled by different compaction energies of $E_c=22kJ/m^3$, $E_c=504kJ/m^3$), confining pressure (100 kPa, 1 MPa, 3 MPa, 5 MPa) were performed to investigate influences of these factors. Based on the test results, the threshold fines content, where the dominant structure of mixture changes from sand-matrix to fines-matrix, decreases with the increase of confining pressure. Under very high confining pressures, as a result of sand particle crushing, the behavior of the dense specimen is similar to that of the loose specimen which shows hardening, compression behavior, and shear strength increases with increase of fines content. In conclusion, silt is granular material like sand, and its influence on shear behavior of sand-silt mixture is very different from that of plastic fines on sand-fines mixture.

• 한국해양학회지
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• v.25 no.1
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• pp.26-35
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• 1990

Sound velocities and attenuation coefficients of marine surface sediments were calculated from insitu acoustic experiments on 4 nearshore areas off Pohang, Pusan Yeosu, and Kunsan around the Korean Peninsula. The relationship between these values and physical properties of sediments was examined and attenuation mechanism was analysed using the estimated gas content. Sound velocities and attenuation coefficients ranging from 1470 to 1616 m/sec and 0.0565 to 0.6604 dB/kHz-m, respectively, are well related to sediment types. The attenuation coefficient is maximum in coarse silts, and the sound velocity increases with density. The gas content estimated less than 8 ppm increases with the decreasing sediment grain size. When the sediment size is greater than fine sand, sound attenuation is mostly due to friction losses, and probably negligible viscous loss remains unchanged with the varying physical properties of sediments. The maximum attenuation in coarse silts result from both friction loss and cohesion of finer sediments between the contacts of silt grains. The cohesion begins to be the dominant dissipative process with decreasing grain size from medium and fine silts.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.32 no.3
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• pp.347-359
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• 2023

With the development of infrastructure, there is a critical shortage of filling materials all over the word. However, a large amount of silt accumulated in the lower reaches of the Yellow River is treated as waste every year, which will cause environmental pollution and waste of resources. Microbial induced calcium carbonate precipitation (MICP) technology, with the advantage of efficient, economical and environmentally friendly protection, is selected to solidify the abandoned Yellow River silt with poor mechanical properties into high-quality filling material in this paper. Based on unconfined compressive strength (UCS) test, determination of calcium carbonate (CaCO₃) content and scanning electron microscope (SEM) test, the effects of cementation solution concentration, treatment times and relative density on the solidification effect were studied. The results show that the loose silt particles can be effectively solidified together into filling material with excellent mechanical properties through MICP technology. The concentration of cementation solution have a significant impact on the solidification effect, and the reasonable concentration of cementation solution is 1.5 mol/L. With the increase of treatment times, the pores in the soil are filled with CaCO₃, and the UCS of the specimens after 10 times of treatment can reach 2.5 MPa with a relatively high CaCO₃ content of 26%. With the improvement of treatment degree, the influence of relative density on the UCS increases gradually. Microscopic analysis revealed that after MICP reinforcement, CaCO₃ adhered to the surface of soil particles and cemented with each other to form a dense structure.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.37 no.8
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• pp.5-13
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• 2021

Liquefaction behaviors of two natural silty samples containing fines including clay of 50% or more (Sample No.1 was silt 44.1% and clay 8.8%, sample No.2 was silt 57.2% and clay 12.4%) were examined by a cyclic triaxial test. According to the results on samples containing 50% or more of fine particles, an increase in the fine content decreases the liquefaction resistance of the sample. In other words, when the fine content increases, the liquefaction state of sample is reached with a small number of cyclic loads. In the relationship between the excess pore water pressure ratio and the number of cycles, the slope of the excess pore water pressure ratio increases more steeply as the fine content increases. As a result of analyzing the liquefaction behavior of the two silts with the content of clay contained in the fines, liquefaction occurred more easily in the No.2 silt with high clay content. This result shows that the clay contained in the fines affects the liquefaction behavior of the silt.

• Journal of the Korean GEO-environmental Society
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• v.15 no.7
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• pp.31-38
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• 2014

For analysis of mechanics properties of soil cement, unconfined compressive strength has been proposed by existing case studies. In this study, mechanical changes with water content of silt, curing time and cement content were analyzed through unconfined compressive strength test. In addition, the changes for B factor by Abrams were compared with existing case studies after the prediction equations could be proposed about the unconfined compressive strength of admixed cement soil. Especially, the B constant factor was changed with soil characteristics and curing time. For analysis results of appropriateness status and unconfined compressive strength, consideration of variable form was titrated. The prediction equations at low plasticity silt admixed using the uniaxial compressive strength with applying Abrams's equation and considering cement content, curing time is proposed.