• Proceedings of the Korean Geotechical Society Conference
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• 2009.03a
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• pp.132-135
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• 2009

In order study, experimental stress-strain relationships were achieved for various suctions by triaxial tests. A failure envelop was occurred on a plane in p-q-$\psi$ space, since the level of matric suction is in the small range. It was found that the failure criteria could be defined uniquely by the Bishop stress and were also independent of matric suctions. At the level of small strain, deformation moduli were evaluated according to matric suctions by fitting to Ramberg-Osgood model. It was found that deformation moduli increase as matric suctions increase.

• 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.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.24 no.7
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• pp.17-24
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• 2008

In this study, the triaxial behaviour of an unsaturated soil was analyzed by Bishop stress descriptions. $K_0$ stress paths and those final values were independent of matric suctions after describing by the Bishop stress. The failure criteria could be defined uniquely by the Bishop stress and were also independent of matric suctions. In the low level of matric suctions the failure criteria have a linear relationship and the estimated criterion fits the measured accurately. The variable ${\chi}$ for describing the Bishop stress was a constant theoretically under the low level of matric suctions. The suction stress could be defined at zero deviatoric stress in the failure criteria and increased linearly with respect to matric suctions in both the theory and the experiments.

• Proceedings of the Korean Geotechical Society Conference
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• 2002.03a
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• pp.509-516
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• 2002

Rainfall-induced landslides in a weathered granite soil slope have mostly relative shallow slip surfaces above the groundwater table The pore-water pressure of soil above the groundwater table is usually negative. This negative pore-water pressure(or matric suction) has been found to make a large contribution to the slope stability. Therefore, the variation of in-situ matric suction profiles with time in a soil slope should be understood. In this study, a field measurement program was carried out from June to August, 2001 to monitor in-situ matric suctions and volumetric water contents in a weathered granite soil slope. The influence of climatic conditions on the variation of in-situ matric suctions could be found to decrease rapidly with depth. It could be found that decrement of matric suction induced by precipitation is affected not only by the amount and duration of rainfalls but also by the initial matric suction just prior to rainstorms. The soil-water characteristic from the field monitoring tends toward the wetting path of SWCC obtained from the laboratory test.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.66 no.2
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• pp.273-283
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• 2018

Currently, the dynamic amplification effect of suction is described using the wind vibration coefficient (WVC) of external loads. In other words, it is proposed that the fluctuating characteristics of suction are equivalent to external loads. This is, however, not generally valid. Meanwhile, the effects of the ventilation rate of louver on suction and its WV are considered. To systematically analyze the effects of the ventilation rate of louver on the multi-dimensional WVC of ultra-large cooling towers under suctions, the 210 m ultra-large cooling tower under construction was studied. First, simultaneous rigid pressure measurement wind tunnel tests were executed to obtain the time history of fluctuating wind loads on the external surface and the internal surface of the cooling tower at different ventilation rates (0%, 15%, 30%, and 100%). Based on that, the average values and distributions of fluctuating wind pressures on external and internal surfaces were obtained and compared with each other; a tower/pillar/circular foundation integrated simulation model was developed using the finite element method and complete transient time domain dynamics of external loads and four different suctions of this cooling tower were calculated. Moreover, 1D, 2D, and 3D distributions of WVCs under external loads and suctions at different ventilation rates were obtained and compared with each other. The WVCs of the cooling tower corresponding to four typical response targets (i.e., radial displacement, meridional force, Von Mises stress, and circumferential bending moment) were discussed. Value determination and 2D evaluation of the WVCs of external loads and suctions of this large cooling tower at different ventilation rates were proposed. This study provides references to precise prediction and value determination of WVC of ultra-large cooling towers.

• 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.

• Wind and Structures
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• v.8 no.5
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• pp.357-372
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• 2005

Mean and extreme pressure distributions on a large cantilevered flat roof model are measured in a boundary layer wind tunnel. The largest peak suction values are observed from pressure taps beneath conical "delta-wing type" corner vortices that occur for oblique winds, then the characteristics and causes of the local peak suctions are discussed in detail. Power spectra of fluctuating wind pressures measured from some typical taps located at the roof edges under different wind directions are presented, and coherence functions of fluctuating pressures are also obtained. Based on these results, it is verified that the peak suctions are highly correlated with the conical vortices. Furthermore, according to the characteristics of wind loads on the roof, an aerodynamic solution to minimize the peak suctions by venting the leading edges and the corners of the roof is recommended. The experimental results show that the suggested strategy can effectively control the generation of the conical vortices and make a reduction of 50% in mean pressures and 25% in extreme local pressures at wind sensitive locations on the roof.

• Journal of The Korean Society of Agricultural Engineers
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• v.48 no.7
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• pp.35-43
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• 2006

This study was carried out to investigate the liquefaction behaviour and predict deviator stress with matric suction, of unsaturated silty sand. The unsaturated soil tests were conducted using a modified triaxial cell and specimens were prepared using the moisture tamping method. The axis translation technique was used to create the desired matric suctions in the specimen. Undrained triaxial compression tests were carried out at matric suction of 0, 2, 5, 10 and 25 kPa. The specimens were sheared to axial strains of about 20% to obtain steady state conditions. The results showed that liquefaction of silty sand only occurs at matric suction of 0 kPa and 2 kPa. The results also show that at matric suctions of 5, 10 and 25 kPa, the resistance to liquefaction increases. As the suction increases, the undrained effective stress path approached the drained stress path. Also, the predicted and measured maximum deviator stress for unsaturated soils using the effective stress concept showed good agreement as matric suction increases. The deviator stress increase is nonlinear as matric suction increases.

• Proceedings of the Korean Geotechical Society Conference
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• 2006.03a
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• pp.860-865
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• 2006

In order to predict the stability of slopes, it is important to evaluate shear strength of unsaturated soils. The triaxial tests were performed under $K_0$ conditions for unsaturated soils and the results were compared with those for saturated soils. In unsaturated soils, the secant modul and the shear strengths are larger than those of saturated soils because of matric suctions. However the shear strengths were not affected severely by stress conditions at consolidation.

• KSCE Journal of Civil and Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.29 no.4C
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• pp.175-182
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• 2009

The stress-strain relationship of an unsaturated soil was analyzed by Bishop stress descriptions in this study. The failure criteria could be defined uniquely by the Bishop stress and were also independent of matric suctions. In the low level of matric suctions the failure criteria have a linear relationship and the estimated criterion fitted the measured accurately. Deformation moduli in the small strain level were linearly increased generally with respect to Bishop stress.