• Geomechanics and Engineering
• /
• v.35 no.5
• /
• pp.511-523
• /
• 2023

Canal-side roads frequently collapse due to an unexpectedly greater soft-clay thickness with a rapid drawdown situation. This causes annually increased repair and reconstruction costs. This paper aims to explore the effect of soft-clay thickness on the failure in the canal-side road in the case study of Phra Nakhon Si Ayutthaya rural road no. 1043 (AY. 1043). Before the actual construction, a field vane shear test was performed to determine the undrained shear strength and identify the thickness of the soft clay at the AY. 1043 area. After establishing the usability of AY. 1043, the resistivity survey method was used to evaluate the thickness of the soft clay layer at the failure zone. The screw driving sounding test was used to evaluate the undrained shear strength for the road structure with a medium-stiff clay layer at the failure zone for applying to the numerical model. This model was simulated to confirm the effect of soft-clay thickness on the failure of the canal-side road. The monitoring and testing results showed the tendency of rapid drawdown failure when the canal-side road was located on > 9 m thick of soft clay with a sensitivity > 4.5. The result indicates that the combination of resistivity survey and field vane shear test can be successfully used to inspect the soft-clay thickness and sensitivity before construction. The preliminary design for preventing failure or improving the stability of the canal-side road should be considered before construction under the critical thickness and sensitivity values of the soft clay.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
• /
• v.28 no.4
• /
• pp.385-396
• /
• 2022

The accurate determination of the subgrade reaction modulus (K_s) of soil is an important factor for geotechnical engineers. This study estimated the K_s of soft soil improved with floating deep cement mixing (DCM) columns. A novel prediction model was developed that emphasizes the accuracy of identifying the most significant parameters of K_s. Several multi-layer perceptron (MLP) models that were trained using the Levenberg Marquardt (LM) backpropagation method were developed to estimate K_s. The models were trained using a reliable database containing the results of 36 physical modelling tests. The input parameters were the undrained shear strength of the DCM columns, undrained shear strength of soft soil, area improvement ratio and length-to-diameter ratio of the DCM columns. Grey wolf optimization (GWO) was coupled with the MLPs to improve the performance indices of the MLPs. Sensitivity tests were carried out to determine the importance of the input parameters for prediction of K_s. The results showed that both the MLP-LM and MLP-GWO methods showed high ability to predict K_s. However, it was shown that MLP-GWO (R = 0.9917, MSE = 0.28 (MN/m²/m)) performed better than MLP-LM (R =0.9126, MSE =6.1916 (MN/m²/m)). This proves the greater reliability of the proposed hybrid model of MLP-GWO in approximating the subgrade reaction modulus of soft soil improved with floating DCM columns. The results revealed that the undrained shear strength of the soil was the most effective factor for estimation of K_s.

• Earthquakes and Structures
• /
• v.23 no.6
• /
• pp.517-526
• /
• 2022

Previous studies have shown that pile-soil interactions have significant influences on the isolation efficiency of an isolated structure. However, most of the existing tests were carried out using a 1-g shaking table, which cannot reproduce the soil stresses resulting in distortion of the simulated pile-soil interactions. In this study, a centrifuge shaking table modelling of the seismic responses of a friction pendulum bearing isolated structure with a pile foundation under earthquakes were conducted. The pile foundation structure was designed and constructed with a scale factor of 1:100. Two layers of the foundation soil, i.e., the bottom layer was made of plaster and the upper layer was normal soil, were carefully prepared to meet the similitude requirement. Seismic responses, including strains, displacement, acceleration, and soil pressure were collected. The settlement of the soil, sliding of the isolator, dynamic amplification factor and bending moment of the piles were analysed to reveal the influence of the soil structure interaction on the seismic performance of the structure. It is found that the soil rotates significantly under earthquake motions and the peak rotation is about 0.021 degree under 24.0 g motions. The isolator cannot return to the initial position after the tests because of the unrecoverable deformation of the soil and the friction between the curved surface of the slider and the concave plate.

• Proceedings of the Korean Geotechical Society Conference
• /
• 2000.11a
• /
• pp.25-32
• /
• 2000

In order to analyze the behavior of piled abutment adjacent to surcharge loads a numerical study was conducted. In 2D plane stalin analysis, the distribution of lateral soil movement was investigated by varying the thickness of clay layer and the magnitude of surcharge loads. In 3D analysis, the magnitude and distribution of lateral pile-soil movement were studied for different cap rigidity. Based on limited parametric studies, a simple method is proposed to identify the lateral pressure of piled abutment adjacent to surcharge loads.

• Journal of the Korean GEO-environmental Society
• /
• v.25 no.4
• /
• pp.5-12
• /
• 2024

In the case of creating a site in the reclaimed land (public waters), due to the nature of the coastal sedimentary ground, large-scale construction materials are required, It is necessary to utilize soft clay, which is inevitably generated during construction of the complex, as a fill material in terms of resource recycling and economic aspects (reducing the amount of embankment required). In this study, changes in the consolidation characteristics of cut-out disturbed soft clay due to the recycling of soft clay soil were identified, and a consolidation settlement design plan was proposed. Through the results of the consolidation test of the study site, the change in consolidation characteristics (compression index reduction, precede load uncountable) due to disturbance (cutting) was confirmed, the method of calculating (consolidation settlement) the filling clay layer as the composite target layer (consolidation target layer, loading load layer) was analyzed as a result consistent with the actual behavior.

• Proceedings of the Korean Geotechical Society Conference
• /
• 1994.09a
• /
• pp.129-138
• /
• 1994

It is well recognized that accurate analysis of lateral earth pressure is very signficant factor which determines the design amount of braced cut walls and braced systems. Many researchers, Peck, Terzaghi-Peck and so on, make a study about lateral earth pressure to act on the flexible walls. But these studies trouble accurate to multy layered systems like inland areas in Korea. This study is compared with the field messurement data to estimate the earth pressure distributions in multy layered areas and the empirical earth pressure distributions. The conclusions are as follows : At final excavation depth, the lateral earth pressure which messured by field instrument is smaller than the empirical earth pressure. (About 1.85~5.32 times). In the case of considering the soft rock layer to the final excavation depth, the messured earth pressure is safe to be compared with empirical earth pressure. The messured earth pressure distributions are like that the upper soil layer is small the middle soil layer is large, the rock mass layer is very small.

• Journal of the Korea institute for structural maintenance and inspection
• /
• v.15 no.6
• /
• pp.85-91
• /
• 2011

This study aims at evaluating feasibility of Bottom ash-mixed Foam Cement Banking(BFCB) Method on the enhancement of soft soil, which is developed to reduce self-weight of banking by applying bottom ash and foam. to cement slurry. In order to measure the behavior of soil when BFCB layer was covered to soft ground, a testing equipment for mock-up test was fabricated and phased loads were applied up to measurement of yielding and ultimate strengths as well as movement of ground particles. In addition, these measured values such as settlement and heaving were compared with ones of surface-hardening method prevailing on soil improvement. As the result through mock-up test, BFCB showed lower values of ground deformation, while wider range of deformation was observed in compare to the other method. And settlement and heaving were measured lower, which implies the method developed is very effective to applicability of soft ground.

• Journal of the Korean Geosynthetics Society
• /
• v.13 no.1
• /
• pp.1-9
• /
• 2014

Expansion of a roadway on a soft ground can cause settlement of the existing road during embankment construction due to the consolidation characteristics of the soft soil. Many problems related to construction and maintenance, such as deterioration of the surface, decreased safety, and decreased structural stability, could affect the existing road. This scenario is especially true if the roadway foundation is a deep thick soft ground. Therefore, engineers should carefully select a proper design based on the characteristics of the soil layer. In this study, the expansion of the second branch of the Namhae Expressway was selected as the target site because this expressway has been constructing on a soft soil layer approximately 50 m thick. The original design was reviewed, problems were discussed and alternative was proposed through value engineering job plan phases: investigation, speculation, evaluation, development and presentation. In addition, the proposed alternative was evaluated on cost, function and value improvement. Compared to the original design, the proposed alternative saved cost and improved the function and overall value.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Crop Science Conference
• /
• 2017.06a
• /
• pp.321-321
• /
• 2017

Water availability in rainfed lowlands (RFL) is strongly affected by climate change. In RFL, rice plants are exposed to soil moisture fluctuations (SMF) but rarely to simple progressive drought as widely believed. Typical RFL field is characterized by a about 5-cm thick high bulk density hardpan layer underneath the cultivated layer at about 20 cm depth that impedes deep root development. Root system has the ability to develop in response to changes in SMF, known as phenotypic plasticity. We hypothesized that genotypes that can adapt to RFL have root plasticity. The roots can sharply respond to re-wetting after drought period and thus penetrate the hardpan layer when the hardpan is wet and so becomes relatively soft, and thus access water under the hardpan. This study aimed to identify CSSLs derived from a cross between Sasanishiki and Habataki which adapted to such RFL conditions. We used 39 CSSLs together with the parent Sasanishiki, which were grown in hydroponics and pot under transient soil moisture stresses (drought and then rewatering), and compared with continuously well-watered (WW) (control) up to 14 days after sowing (DAS), and 20 DAS, respectively. Based on the results of hydroponics and pot experiments, we selected a few lines, which were grown in the soil-filled rootbox with artificial hardpan layer and without artificial hardpan. For the rootbox without artificial hardpan, plants were grown under WW and transient soil moisture stresses for 49 DAS. While the rootbox with artificial hardpan, the plants were grown under WW (control) and SMF (WW up to 21 DAS, 1st drought (22-36 DAS), rewatering (37-44 DAS), and followed by 2nd drought (45-58 DAS)). Among the 39 CSSLs, only CSSL439 (SL39) consistently showed significantly higher shoot dry weight (SDW) than Sasanishiki under transient soil moisture stress conditions as well as SMF conditions in all the experiments. Furthermore, under WW, SL39 consistently showed no significant differences from Sasanishiki in shoot and root growth in most of traits examined. SL39 showed significantly greater total root length (TRL) than Sasanishiki under transient soil moisture stress, which is considered as phenotypic plasticity in response to rewatering after drought period. Such plastic root development was the key trait that effectively contributed to root elongation and branching during the rewatering period and consequently enhanced the root to penetrate hardpan layer when the soil penetration resistance at hardpan layer reduced. In addition, using the rootbox with artificial hardpan layer ($1.7g\;cm^{-3}$, heavily compacted), SL39 showed greater root system development than Sasanishiki under SMF, which was expressed in its significantly higher TRL, total nodal RL, and total lateral RL at hardpan layer as well as at below the hardpan layer. These results prove that SL39 has plasticity that enables its root systems to penetrate hardpan layer in response to rewatering. Under SMF, such root plasticity contributed to its higher gs and Pn.

• Proceedings of the KSR Conference
• /
• 2008.06a
• /
• pp.1695-1704
• /
• 2008

The problems associated with constructing high-speed concrete track embankments over soft compressible soil has lead to the development and/or extensive use of many of the ground improvement techniques used today. Drains, surcharge loading, and geosynthetic reinforcement, have all been used to solve the settlement and embankment stability issues associated with construction on soft soils. However, when time constraints are critical to the success of the project, owners have resorted to another innovative approach. Especially, the design criteria of residual settlement is limited as 30mm for concrete track embankment, it is very difficult to satisfy this standard using the former construction method. Pile net method consist of vertical columns that are designed to transfer the load of the embankment through the soft compressible soil layer to a firm foundation and one or more layers of geosynthetic reinforcement placed between the top of the columns and the bottom of the embankment. This paper will present the guidelines for the design of pile net method to supported embankments. These guidelines were developed based on a review of current design methodologies and a parametric study of design variables using numerical modeling.