• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.30 no.4
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• pp.373-382
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• 2022

Unsaturated soil at high suctions is widespread. Many civil engineering projects are related to the hydro-mechanical behavior of unsaturated soils at high suctions, particularly in arid and semiarid areas. To investigate water retention behaviors of nine clayey soils (one is classified as fat clay and the others are classified as lean clay according to the unified soil classification system), the high suction (3.29-286.7 MPa) was imposed on the specimens at zero net stress by the vapor equilibrium technique. In this paper, the effect of void ratio on the water retention behavior at high suction was discussed in detail. Validation data showed that soil types, i.e., different mineralogical compositions, are critical in the soil water retention behavior at a high suction range. Second, the hysteresis behavior at a high suction range is mainly related to the clay content and the specific surface area. And the mechanism of water retention and hysteresis behavior at high suctions was discussed. Moreover, the maximum suction is not a unique value, and it is crucial to determine the maximum suction value accurately, especially for the shear strength prediction at high suctions. If the soil consists of hydrophilic minerals such as montmorillonite and illite, the maximum suction will be lower than 10⁶ kPa. Finally, using the area of hysteresis to quantify the degree of hysteresis at a high suction range is proposed. There was a good correlation between the area of hydraulic hysteresis and the specific surface area.

• Proceedings of the Korean Geotechical Society Conference
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• 1999.11c
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• pp.85-94
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• 1999

Reinforced Soil Wall has several merits comparing with conventional retaining wall. The conventional method has the limit of wall height, ununiform settlement of the foundation ground, quality assurance of the embankment body, shortening of construction period, economical construction and so on. Basis of previous mentioned things reinforced soil wall is the substitutional method of conventional retaining wall and its necessity is continuously increasing. The embanking material used in reinforced soil wall is generally limited such as a good quality sandy soil, and in many case constructors have to transfer such a good embanking material from far away to construction site. As a result, they would pressed by time and economy. If poor soils could be used embanking material, for example, clayey soil produced in-situ by cutting and excavation, the economical merit of reinforced soil wall would be increased more and more. Likewise, a lot of study about laboratory experimental behavior of reinforced soil wall using a good quality soil is being performed, but is rare study about clayey soil containing much volume of fine particle relatively in korea. In this study, the authors investigated behavior of the geosynthetic reinforced and unreinforced soil walls using clayey soil as embanking material in view of horizontal movement of walls, bearing capacity and reinforcement stress.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.9 no.6
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• pp.815-827
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• 2015

The mechanical behavior of soil and soil-rock mixture is investigated via the discrete element method. A non-overlapping combination method of spheres is used to model convex polyhedron rock blocks of soil-rock mixture in the DEM simulations. The meso-mechanical parameters of soil and soil-rock interface in DEM simulations are obtained from the in-situ tests. Based on the Voronoi cell, a method representing volumtric strain of the sample at the particle scale is proposed. The numerical results indicate that the particle rotation, occlusion, dilatation and self-organizing force chains are a remarkable phenomena of the localization band for the soil and soil-rock mixture samples. The localization band in a soil-rock mixture is wider than that in the soil sample. The current research shows that the 3D discrete element method can effectively simulate the mechanical behavior of soil and soil-rock mixture.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.20 no.3
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• pp.221-232
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• 2020

In many tropical regions, soil structures often fail under constant loads as a result of decreasing matric suction due to water infiltration. Most of the previous studies have been performed by infiltrating water in the soil specimen by keeping shear stress constant at 85-90% of peak shear strength in order to ensure specimen failure during water infiltration. However, not many studies are available to simulate the soil behavior when water is infiltrated at lower shear stress and how the deformations affect the soil behavior if the failure did not occur during water infiltration. This research aimed at understanding both the strength and deformation behavior of unsaturated soil during the course of water infiltration at 25%, 50% and 75% of maximum deviatoric stress and axial strain by keeping them constant. A unique stress-strain curve expresses the transient situation from unsaturated condition to failure state due to water infiltration is also drawn. The shearing-infiltration test results indicate that the water infiltration reduces matric suction and increase soil deformation. This research also indicates that unsaturated soil failure problems should not always be treated as shear strength problems but deformation should also be considered while addressing the problems related to unsaturated soils.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.34 no.4
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• pp.437-447
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• 2023

Inclined piles are commonly used in civil engineering constructions where significant lateral resistance is required. Many researchers proved their positive performance on the seismic behavior of the supported structure and the piles themselves. However, most of these numerical studies were done within the framework of linear elastic or elastoplastic soil behavior, neglecting therefore the soil non-linearity at low and moderate soil strains which is questionable and could be misleading in dynamic analysis. The main objective of this study is to examine the influence of the pile inclination on the seismic performance of the soil-pile-structure system when both the linear elastic and the nonlinear soil models are employed. Based on the comparative responses, the adequacy of the soil's linear elastic behavior will be therefore evaluated. The analysis is conducted by generating a three-dimensional finite difference model, where a full interaction between the soil, structure, and inclined piles is considered. The numerical survey proved that the pile inclination can have a significant impact on the internal forces generated by seismic activity, specifically on the bending moment and shear forces. The main disadvantages of using inclined piles in this system are the bending forces at the head and pile-to-head connection. It is crucial to account for soil nonlinearity to accurately assess the seismic response of the soil-pile-structure system.

• Geotechnical Engineering
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• v.7 no.3
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• pp.33-42
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• 1991

Increasing demand of rational analysis of dynamic soil behavior subjected to repetitive loading has evolved soil dynamics which is essential for proper design and/or analysis of dynamically loaded soil structure. In this paper, the stress-strain behavior of weathered granite soil under cyclic loading is stud- ied by measuring the strength and the strain before and after application of at least 11, 000 cycles of repetitive load. Relationships are suggested for predicting results of soil dynamics from those of soil statics.

• Proceedings of the Korean Geotechical Society Conference
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• 1999.03a
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• pp.145-152
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• 1999

In the applying of the reinforced soil method, it would be possible to obtain reinforcement effect more than before in terms of economic if high water content clayey soils could be used as embanking material. Futhermore it would be possible to expect the expansion of the applying field of reinforced soil method too. In this study, the authors describe the analysis results on the behavior of 5 meter high walls reinforced with nonwoven geotextile having the permeability and woven geotextile or geogrid having large tensile strength on the soil ground. The behavior of the walls were investigated for about 100 days after construction and the deformations of reinforcements, lateral soil pressures, vertical and horizontal displacements of the walls were examined by automatical measuring system. It was found that this kinds of reinforcing system might effectively improve the performance of the steep walls by virtue of the reciprocal action between soil and reinforcements, and it might be concluded that construction of the clayey reinforced soil walls with three kinds of geotextiles could be done successfully even on the comparative weak ground.

• Journal of The Korean Society of Agricultural Engineers
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• v.51 no.6
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• pp.69-76
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• 2009

Soils exhibit creep behavior in which deformation and movement proceed under a state of constant stress or load. In Korea, weathered soil is abundant and occupies around one-third of the country. Weathered soil is visually described as a sandy or gravelley soil, but the behavior is quite different from the behavior of usual sand and gravel. In particular, the permeability of weathered soil is similar to sand, but the durability of settlement is similar to clay. Therefore analysis of time-dependent behavior of weathered soil is very important. In this study, Creep tests with weathered soils were carried out under constant principal stress differences of various stress levels which were experimentally obtained by triaxial compression test. The results of these tests showed the creep behavior for which the deformation increased with time, and the results are consistent with phenomenological model by creep equation of Singh-Mitchell.

• Journal of Environmental Impact Assessment
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• v.14 no.6
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• pp.415-425
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• 2005

To examine the geochemical behavior and pollution of soils in Gwangju City, an analysis was carried out for pH, on the contents of metals, and organic carbon. Soil samples were taken from environs areas, industrial areas and downtown areas. The major factor controlling the behavior of metallic elements in the soil was chemical weathering of clay mineral in the environs areas, industrialization, and urbanization. Heavy metals including Cu, Pb and Zn were highly enriched for the samples from central part of downtown area. This indicated that the urbanization and the industrialization affected soil pollution. The results show that soil pollution in a metropolitan city which is caused by harmful heavy metals is severest in the center of the city. In consequence, it is inevitable that practical measures should be taken to prevent soil pollution expansion.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.7 no.2
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• pp.133-148
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• 2014

An experimental study is carried out to evaluate the performance of Lime mortar-Well graded Soil (Lime-WS) columns for the improvement of soft soils. Tests are conducted on a column of 100 mm diameter and 600 mm length surrounded by soft soil in different area ratios. Experiments are performed either with the entire area loading to evaluate the load - settlement behavior of treated grounds and only a column area loading to find the limiting axial stress of the column. A series of tests are carried out in soaking condition to investigate the influence of moisture content on the load - settlement behavior of specimens. In order to compare the behavior of Lime-WS columns with Conventional Stone (CS) columns as well as Geogrid Encased Stone (GES) columns, the behavior of these columns have been also considered in the present study. Remarkable improvement in the behavior of soft soil is observed due to the installation of Lime-WS columns and the performance of these columns is significantly enhanced by increasing the area ratio. The results show that CS columns are not suitable as a soil improvement technique for extremely soft soils and should be enhanced by encasing the column or replaced by rigid stone columns.