• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.23 no.3
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• pp.207-215
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• 2020

This paper presents a kinematic limit analysis for passive earth pressure of rigid retaining structures considering the unsaturation of the backfill. Particular emphasis in the current work is focused on the effects of the spatial change in the degree of saturation on the passive earth pressure under different steady-infiltration/evaporation conditions. The incorporation of change of effective unit weight with degree of saturation is the main contribution of this study. The problem is formulated based on the log-spiral failure model rather than the linear wedge failure model, in which both the spatial variations of suction and soil effective unit weight are taken into account. Parametric studies, which cover a wide range of flow conditions, soil types and properties, wall batter, back slope angle as well as the interface friction angle, are performed to investigate the effects of these factors on the passive pressure and the corresponding shape of potential failure surfaces in the backfill. The results reveal that the flow conditions have significant effects on the suction and unit weight of the clayey backfill, and hence greatly impact the passive earth pressure of retaining structures. It is expected that present study could provide an insight into evaluation of the passive earth pressure of retaining structures with unsaturated backfills.

• Korean Journal of Agricultural and Forest Meteorology
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• v.1 no.1
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• pp.29-35
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• 1999

Soil structure and organic matter have been known to strongly affect water flow and solute transport, yet little information is available concerning soil hydraulic properties related to soil physical and chemical properties in the forest site. The purpose of this study was to quantify the spatial variability and spatial correlation of the measured parameter values from the plots established with the rainfall simulator on Japanese larch(Larix leptolepis) dominated site in Kwangju. Kyunggi-Do. Measurement of soil water flux and retention were made with the inherent soil texture, soil structure, and organic matter. The method was based on the observation that when water was applied at a constant rate to the soil surface on each plot. The method was simple to apply and consists of following steps: (i) Wet the soil from a rainfall simulator with several known discharge rates on a relatively leveled soil surface with and without organic matter. (ii) Once the borders of the ponded zone were steady, saturated hydraulic conductivity( $K_{s}$) and the matric flux function(F) was evaluated from a regression of flux vs. the reciprocal of the ponded area. A conductivity of the form $K_{i+}$$_1$ $_{c}$= $K_{i}$( $_{c}$) [1-d /dz] where flux continuity implies. For this, continuity of matric potential at the interface at all times are as follows: $_1$( $Z_{c}$) = $_2$( $Z_{c}$) = $_{c}$ for steady state intake from water ponded on the soil surface. Results of this investigation showed the importance of understanding spatial variability in wide differences of water retention and saturated hydraulic conductivity with respect to pore geometry and organic matter contents which influenced the water flux throughout the soil profile.l profile.ile.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.38 no.9
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• pp.45-52
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• 2022

Because discontinuity in the rock mass and contact of soil-structure interaction exhibits coupled thermal-hydromechanical (THM) behavior, it is necessary to develop an interface element based on the full governing equations. In this study, we derive force equilibrium, fluid continuity, and energy equilibrium equations for the interface element. Additionally, we present a stiffness matrix of the elastoplastic mechanical model for the interface element. The developed interface element uses six nodes for displacement and four nodes for water pressure and temperature in a two-dimensional analysis. The fully coupled THM analysis for fluid injection into a fault can model the complicated evolution of injection pressure due to decreasing effective stress in the fault and thermal contraction of the surrounding rock mass. However, the result of hydromechanical analysis ignoring thermal phenomena overestimates hydromechanical variables.

• Journal of Korean Tunnelling and Underground Space Association
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• v.21 no.6
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• pp.861-874
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• 2019

A great interest in the seismic performance evaluation of small size tunnel structures such as utility tunnel has been taken since recent earthquakes at Pohang and Gyeongju in Korea. In this study, the three-dimensional dynamic analyses of vertical shaft and horizontal tunnel under seismic load were carried out using FLAC3D. Especially, parametric analyses was performed to investigate the effects of interfacial stiffness on interfacial behavior between soil and structure. The parametric analysis showed that the interfacial stiffness scarcely gave an effect on the global dynamic behavior of the structure, while had a significant effect on the local displacement behavior of the connections. The magnitude of the interfacial stiffness was inversely proportional to the displacement, while the magnitude of interface stiffness was proportional to the normal and shear stresses. The results of this study suggest the limitations of the existing empirical equations for interfacial stiffness and emphasize the need to develop new interfacial stiffness models.

• Geotechnical Engineering
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• v.5 no.2
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• pp.19-32
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• 1989

The vertical loads of buried Hume pipes were calculated using the finite element method, in which the hyperbolic soil model, the nonlinear hysteretic stress path model and soil-structure interface model were used. The obtained results were compared and discussed with those from the classic methods such as Marston-Spangler's theory and so on. The effects of excavation width and depth to the top of pipe along with soil parameters and type of excavation, which have not been included in the classic methods, were investigated. In addition, a calculation method of the vertical load for buried Hume pipes was proposed and it is presumed to be easily applied in the practical fields.

• Proceedings of the KSR Conference
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• 2008.11b
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• pp.281-285
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• 2008

Corrosion of metallic structures arises when an electric current flows from the metal into the electrolyte such as soil and water. The potential difference across the metal-electrolyte interface, the driving force for the corrosion current, can emerge due to a variety of temperature, pH, humidity and resistivity etc.. With respect to a given structure, a stray current is to be defined as a current flowing on a structure that is not part of the intended electrical circuit. Stray currents are caused by other cathodic protection installations, grounding systems and welding posts, referred to as steady state stray currents. But most often traction systems like railroads and tramlines are responsible for large dynamic stray currents. This type of stray current is generally results from the leakage of return currents from large DC traction systems that are grounded or have a bad earth-insulated return path. This paper investigates the reports, which is made for protecting the electrical corrosion by the DC traction stray current before the construction period.

• Journal of the Computational Structural Engineering Institute of Korea
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• v.29 no.6
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• pp.499-512
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• 2016

The boundary reaction method(BRM) is a substructure time domain method, it removes global iterations between frequency and time domain analyses commonly required in the hybrid approaches, so that it operates as a two-step uncoupled method. The BRM offers a two-step method as follows: (1) the calculation of boundary reaction forces in the frequency domain on an interface of linear and nonlinear regions, (2) solving the wave radiation problem subjected to the boundary reaction forces in the time domain. In the time domain analysis, the near-field soil is modeled to simulate the wave radiation problem. This paper evaluates the performance of the BRM according to modeling extent of near-field soil for the nonlinear SSI analysis of base-isolated NPP structure. For this purpose, parametric studies are performed using equivalent linear SSI problems. The accuracy of the BRM solution is evaluated by comparing the BRM solution with that of conventional SSI seismic technique. The numerical results show that the soil condition affects the modeling range of near-field soil for the BRM analysis as well as the size of the basemat. Finally, the BRM is applied for the nonlinear SSI analysis of a base-isolated NPP structure to demonstrate the accuracy and effectiveness of the method.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.11 no.4
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• pp.553-570
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• 2016

A series of three-dimensional (3D) parametric finite element analyses have been performed to study the influence of the relative locations of pile tips with regards to the tunnel position on the behaviour of single piles and pile groups to adjacent tunnelling in weathered soil. When the pile tips are inside the influence zone, which considers the relative pile tip location with respect to the tunnel position, tunnelling-induced pile head settlements are larger than those computed from the Greenfield condition. However, when the pile tips are outside the influence zone, a reverse trend is obtained. When the pile tips are inside the influence zone, the tunnelling-induced tensile pile forces mobilised, but when the pile tips are outside the influence zone, compressive pile forces are induced because of tunnelling, depending on the shear stress transfer mechanism at the pile-soil interface. For piles connected to a cap, tensile and compressive forces are mobilised at the top of the centre and side piles, respectively. It has been shown that the increases in the tunnelling-induced pile head settlements have resulted in reductions of the apparent factor of safety up to approximately 43% when the pile tips are inside the influence zone, therefore severely affecting the serviceability of the piles. The pile behaviour, when considering the location of the pile tips with regards to the tunnel, has been analysed in great detail by taking the tunnelling-induced pile head settlements, axial pile forces, apparent factor of safety of the piles and shear transfer mechanism into account.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.5 no.5
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• pp.379-399
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• 2013

In practice, analysis of laterally loaded piles is carried out using beams on non-linear Winkler springs model (often known as p-y method) due to its simplicity, low computational cost and the ability to model layered soils. In this approach, soil-pile interaction along the depth is characterized by a set of discrete non-linear springs represented by p-y curves where p is the pressure on the soil that causes a relative deformation of y. p-y curves are usually constructed based on semi-empirical correlations. In order to construct API/DNV proposed p-y curve for clay, one needs two values from the monotonic stress-strain test results i.e., undrained strength ($s_u$) and the strain at 50% yield stress (${\varepsilon}_{50}$). This approach may ignore various features for a particular soil which may lead to un-conservative or over-conservative design as not all the data points in the stress-strain relation are used. However, with the increasing ability to simulate soil-structure interaction problems using highly developed computers, the trend has shifted towards a more theoretically sound basis. In this paper, principles of Mobilized Strength Design (MSD) concept is used to construct a continuous p-y curves from experimentally obtained stress-strain relationship of the soil. In the method, the stress-strain graph is scaled by two coefficient $N_C$ (for stress) and $M_C$ (for strain) to obtain the p-y curves. $M_C$ and $N_C$ are derived based on Semi-Analytical Finite Element approach exploiting the axial symmetry where a pile is modelled as a series of embedded discs. An example is considered to show the application of the methodology.

• Computers and Concrete
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• v.29 no.2
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• pp.69-79
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• 2022

For long underground box utility tunnels, post-tensioned precast concrete is often used. Between precast tunnel segments, sealed waterproof flexible joints are often specified. Fault displacement can lead to excessive deformation of the joints, which can lead to reduction in waterproofing due to diminished contact pressure between the sealant strip and the tunnel segment. This paper authenticates utilization of a finite element model for a prefabricated tunnel fault-crossing founded on ABAQUS software. In addition, material parameter selection, contact setting and boundary condition are reviewed. Analyzed under normal fault action are: the influence of fault displacement; buried depth; soil friction coefficient, and angle of crossing at the fault plane. In addition, distribution characteristics of the utility tunnel structure for vertical and longitudinal/horizontal relative displacement at segmented interface for the top and bottom slab are analyzed. It is found that the effect of increase in fault displacement on the splice joint deformation is significant, whereas the effects of changes in burial depth, pipe-soil friction coefficient and fault-crossing angle on the overall tunnel and joint deformations were not so significant.