• Journal of Nuclear Fuel Cycle and Waste Technology(JNFCWT)
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• v.17 no.3
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• pp.329-338
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• 2019

Suction of unsaturated bentonite buffers is a very important input parameter for hydro-mechanical performance assessment and design of an engineered barrier system. This study analyzed suction measurement techniques and constitutive models of unsaturated porous media reported in the literature, and suggested suction measurement techniques and constitutive models suitable for bentonite buffer in an HLW repository. The literature review showed the suction of bentonite buffer to be much higher than that of soil, as measured by total suction including matric suction and osmotic suction. The measurement methods (RH-Cell, RH-Cell/Sensor) using a relative humidity sensor were suitable for suction measurement of the bentonite buffer; the RH-Cell /Sensor method was more preferred in consideration of the temperature change due to radioactive decay heat and measurement time. Various water retention models of bentonite buffers have been proposed through experiments, but the van Genuchten model is mainly used as a constitutive model of hydro-mechanical performance assessment of unsaturated buffers. The water characteristic curve of bentonite buffers showed different tendencies according to bentonite type, dry density, temperature, salinity, sample state and hysteresis. Selection of water retention models and determination of model input parameters should consider the effects of these controlling factors so as to improve overall reliability.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Hazard Mitigation
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• v.9 no.3
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• pp.9-17
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• 2009

Most of the current drainage criteria have been developed on the basis of experimental field results and theoretical analyses of infiltration under saturated conditions. The objective of this study is to extend the understanding of pavement drainage systems by considering unsaturated condition in the sublayers. Analyses of unsaturated flows through pavements was performed by running finite element program(SEEP/W) with a range of pavement materials and drainage parameters. Meanwhile, the widely used DRIP program developed by FHWA is based on assumption of saturated condition of pavements. Differences between saturated and unsaturated condition in the sublayers of the pavements are verified. It is verified that for unsaturated conditions time to drain would take longer time compared to saturated condition.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.25 no.5
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• pp.53-64
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• 2009

Many slope failures are induced by rainfall infiltration. A lot of recent researches are therefore focused on rainfall-induced slope instability and the rainfall infiltration is recognized as the important triggering factor. The rainfall infiltrates into the soil slope and makes the matric suction lost in the slope and even the positive pore water pressure develops near the surface of the slope. They decrease the resisting shear strength. In Korea, a few public institutions suggested conservative slope design guidelines that assume a fully saturated soil condition. However, this assumption is irrelevant and sometimes soil properties are misused in the slope design method to fulfill the requirement. In this study, a more relevant slope stability evaluation method is suggested to take into account the real rainfall infiltration phenomenon. Unsaturated soil properties such as shear strength, soil-water characteristic curve and permeability for Korean weathered soils were obtained by laboratory tests and also estimated by artificial neural network models. For real-time assessment of slope instability, failure warning criteria of slope based on deterministic and probabilistic analyses were introduced to complement uncertainties of field measurement data. The slope stability evaluation technique can be combined with field measurement data of important factors, such as matric suction and water content, to develop an early warning system for probably unstable slopes due to the rainfall.

• KSCE Journal of Civil and Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.33 no.6
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• pp.2369-2379
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• 2013

The Soil-Water Characteristics Curve (SWCC) is affected by the initial density of soil under unsaturated condition. Also, the characteristic of hydraulic conductivity is changed by the initial density of soil. To study the effect of initial density of unsaturated soil, SWCC and the Hydraulic Conductivity Function (HCF) of Jumoonjin sand with various relative densities, 40%, 60% and 75% were measured in both drying and wetting processes. As the results of SWCC estimated by van Genuchten (1980) model, the parameter related to Air Entry Value(AEV), ${\alpha}$ in the wetting process is larger than that in drying process, but the parameters related to the SWCC slope, n and the residual water content, m are larger than those in wetting process. The AEV is increased or Water Entry Value (WEV) is decreased with increasing the relative density of sand. The AEV is larger than the WEV at the same relative density of sand. As the results of HCF estimated by van Genuchten (1980) model which is one of the parameter estimation methods, the unsaturated hydraulic conductivity maintained at a saturated one in the low level of matric suctions and then suddenly decreased just before the AEV or the WEV. The saturated hydraulic conductivity in drying process is larger than that in wetting process. The saturated hydraulic conductivity is decreased with increasing the relative density of sand in both drying and wetting processes. Also, the hysteresis in unsaturated HCFs between drying and wetting process was occurred like the hysteresis in SWCCs. According to the test results, the AEV on SWCC is decreased and the saturated hydraulic conductivity is increased with increasing the initial density. It means that SWCC and HCF are affected by the initial density in the unsaturated soil.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.20 no.7
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• pp.159-169
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• 2004

Surface failures of slopes in weathered soil are caused by infiltration due to prolonged rainfall. These failures are mainly triggered by the deepening of the wetting band accompanied by a decrease in suction induced by the infiltrating water. This paper reports trends of rainfall-induced wetting band depth in two types of weathered soils that are commonly found in Korea. Both theoretical and numerical analyses are presented based on the soil-water characteristic curve (SWCC) obtained using filter paper as well as tensiometer tests. It is found that the magnitude of wetting front suction plays a key role in the stability of slopes in weathered soils. Theoretical analysis based on modified Green and Ampt model tends to underestimate the wetting band depth for typical Korean weathered soils. It was also deduced that for Korean weathered soils, the factor of safety drops rapidly once the wetting band depth of 1.2 m is reached.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.34 no.9
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• pp.19-32
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• 2018

In this study, the applicability and practicality of landslides monitoring by using wireless sensor network (WSN) was analysed. WSN system consists of a sensor node for collecting and transmitting data using IEEE 802.14e standard, a gateway for collecting data and transmitting the data to the monitoring server. In the topology of the sensor network, a highly flexible and reliable mesh type was adopted, and three testbeds were chosen in each location of Seoul metropolitan area. Soil moisture sensors, tensiometers, inclinometers, and a rain gauge were installed at each testbed and sensor node to monitor the landslide. For the estimation of the optimal network topology between sensor nodes, the susceptibility assessment of landslides, forest density and viewshed analysis of terrain were conducted. As a result, the network connection works quite well and measured value of the volumetric water content and matric suction simulates well the general trend of the soil water characteristic curve by the laboratory test. As such, it is noted that WSN system, which is the reliable technique, can be applied to the landslide monitoring.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.24 no.5
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• pp.117-127
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• 2008

The volumetric pressure plate extractor (VPPE) was modified for the measurement of shear wave velocity ($V_s$) at various levels of matric suction as well as soil water characteristic curve (SWCC). A non-destructive technique with a pair of bender element (BE) was employed in order to measure the $V_s$ and the corresponding maximum shear modulus ($G_{max}$) of unsaturated soil specimens. Three types of soil were collected from different road construction sites in Korea. For all test soils, the variations in $G_{max}$ with the various levels of water content and matric suction were investigated using the developed apparatus. Compared with the preceding results from the suction-controlled torsional shear (TS) testing system and in-situ seismic tests, the feasibility fur evaluating modulus characteristics of unsaturated compacted soils with the developed VPPE-BE system was assessed. It was confirmed that the newly developed system would be potentially helpful in modeling seasonal variation of modulus.

• Proceedings of the Korean Geotechical Society Conference
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• 2010.03a
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• pp.1250-1255
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• 2010

In this study, in order to examine the hydraulic characteristics for a crushed stone mat. it was accomplished discharge capacity test and soil-water characteristic curve(SWCC) with the object of the research. From the test result, it produced propriety mixed ratio of the crushed stone which mixes the sand. at the time of crushed stone 100% where it does not mixes the sand it appeared that permeability was biggest. increase of shock and content of the sand showed decrease of air entry value.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.39 no.1
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• pp.15-25
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• 2023

Recent weather changes have led to an increase in heavy rainfall resulting in frequent large-scale slope failures. To minimize damage to life and property, a measurement system is used in slope failure warning systems. However, understanding the slope failure behavior is difficult as the measurement system only measures a specific point. Therefore, numerical analysis must be p erformed with the measurement system. The soil water characteristic curve (SWCC) drying curve and boundary conditions that consider evapotranspiration and precipitation have been applied to numerical analysis, but the hysteresis of SWCC affects the numerical analysis results. To address this, a new evapotranspiration calculation method is proposed and applied to boundary conditions, and the measurement data are compared with the results of the numerical analysis. This method takes into account the different infiltration behaviors on evapotranspiration according to the drying and wetting curves of the SWCC, and allows for a more rational prediction of water movement on unsaturated slopes.

• The Journal of Engineering Geology
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• v.32 no.2
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• pp.209-219
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• 2022

To experimentally investigate the variation of soil characteristics in slope during rainfall and the shape of slope failure, the model test was performed using soil box and artificial rainfall simulator. The model test of slope formed by the homogenous sand was performed, and the saturation pattern in the model slope due to rainfall infiltration was observed. The slope model with the inclination of 35° was set up on the slope of 30°, and the rainfall intensity of 50 mm/hr was applied in the test. The soil depth of 35 cm was selected by considering the size of soil box, and the TDR (time domain reflectometry) sensors were installed at various depths to investigate the change of soil characteristics with time. As the result of model test, the slope model during rainfall was saturated from the soil surface to the subsurface, and from the toe part to the crest part due to rainfall infiltration. That is, the toe part of slope was firstly saturated by rainfall infiltration, and then due to continuous rainfall the saturation range was enlarged from the toe part to the crest part in the slope model. The failure of slope model was started at the toe part of slope and then enlarged to the crest part, which is called as the retrogressive failure. At the end of slope failure, the collapsed area increased rapidly. Also, the mode of slope failure was rotational. Meanwhile, the slope failure was occurred when the matric suction in the slope was reached to the air entry value (AEV) estimated in soil-water characteristic curve (SWCC).