• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.24 no.11
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• pp.133-141
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• 2008

In this study, a new method for estimating the undrained shear strength $s_u$ of saturated clays using piezocone penetration test (CPTu) result is proposed. This is to develop more effective CPTu-based $s_u$ estimation method at lower cost with less uncertainty. For this purpose, a marine clay deposit is selected and tested through extensive experimental testing program including both in-situ and fundamental laboratory tests. The proposed method is based on a correlation between the undrained shear strength $s_u$ and the cone resistance $q_t$, without introduction of the total overburden stress into the $s_u-q_t$ correlation. As a result, no additional testing procedure for collecting undisturbed soils samples is required, which can reduce overall testing cost. To verify the proposed method, 4 test sites, which consist of a variety of soil conditions, are selected and used for comparison between measured and predicted undrained shear strength. From comparison, it is seen that predicted values of $s_u$ using the proposed method match well those from measured results.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.22 no.12
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• pp.57-65
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• 2006

In the Nakdong River estuary soft and thick clay, which called Pusan clay, are deposited. Despite a number of great reclaimed projects that have been performed in the area, the consolidation settlement and time have been significantly underestimated due dominantly to sample disturbance, since the last decade. In order to resolve the underestmation, it was necessary to examine the compressibility characteristics through a systematic geotechnical investigation on the clay. In this study an advanced sampling technique was adopted on two sites chosen along the coastline, and then oedometer testing and geological investigation were performed for the undisturbed and reconstituted samples. As the results, the compressibility parameters of the clay were representatively determined, as well as their correlation. Particularly the effects of depositional environment on the physical indexes, level of structure, sample disturbance and compressibility parameters were analyzed for the clay.

• KSCE Journal of Civil and Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.26 no.5C
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• pp.323-331
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• 2006

It is a recent worldwide trend that erosion characteristics of soil, the resistance factor against scour, are quantified and considered in the estimation of scour depths in fine-grained soils. As part of the efforts, local erosion characteristics on fine-grained soils of the West Coast area are analyzed through scour rate experiments, where a lot of sea-crossing long-span bridges are planned and being constructed in recent years. Four sites including Incheon Bridge, Choji Bridge, Hwankyung Bridge, and Janghang area are finally selected for this study and the scour rate tests are performed using 34 undisturbed soil samples from the sites. The critical shear stresses which represent erodibility of the soil tend to be proportional to the undrained shear strength values. The relative ability of cohesive fine-grained soils to resist erosion is assumed to be higher than that of noncohesive soils. Quantified local erosion characteristics of fine-grained soils in the West Coast area are presented in forms of charts showing relationships between scour rates and shear stresses, and suggested as basic data for the estimation of scour depths and design of bridge foundations in the West Coast area.

• KSCE Journal of Civil and Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.30 no.2C
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• pp.95-107
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• 2010

To calculate the end bearing capacity of a drilled Shaft socketed into the rockmass, the unconfined compression strength could be used. But it is difficult to find the unconfined compression strength because it is impossible to get undisturbed samples in weathered soils and rocks. So, to calculate the end bearing capacity, the existing bearing formula could not be used. In this study, for five zones (near pile tip, tip~lower 1D, tip~lower 2D, upper 1D~lower 1D, upper 1D~lower 2D), the relationships between the characteristic values of in-situ tests(SPT, DCPT PMT, BST) and the end bearing capacity of drilled shafts were analysed. As a result, DCPT results were represented the best credibility. Also, a design chart of end bearing capacity using DCPT was suggested.

• Korean Journal of Soil Science and Fertilizer
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• v.37 no.5
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• pp.293-303
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• 2004

This experiment was conducted to investigate the direction or orientation of clay particle movement in argillic horizons (Bt) for clarifying the soil classification of soils. Soil samples were collected from 22 soil series containing Bt horizons. Physical and chemical characteristics and mineral and chemical compositions of clay in the soils were analyzed. Micoromorphological characteristics of the Bt horizons were also investigated with thin sections of the natural undisturbed and oriented soil samples. Average clay content in the Bt horizons was 28% and 1.33 times higher comparing to that in the surface layer. Soil pH was higher, but cation exchange capacity (CEC) and organic matter content were lower in Bt horizon than those in the surface layer. There was an evidence of clay accumulation in Bt horizons of all soil series examined except Bangog series. Although there was an increase of clay content in the horizons in Bangog series, the clay was not originated from illuviation process. The translocation of clay was in the order of an 2:1 expandable clay minerals > 2:1 non-expandable clay minerals > 1:1 clay minerals. The illuvial substances in argillic horizon were composed with clay, amorphous iron and opaque mineral. The micoromorphological features of Bt horizon were void coating, channel infilling and grain coating. There was an apparent boundary between clay coating and the groundmass in residuum and colluvium, but Bt horizon of alluvium was composed of a skew plane amputated by the physical operation.

• Korean Journal of Soil Science and Fertilizer
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• v.33 no.2
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• pp.71-78
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• 2000

Preferential flow has recently been the subject of increasing interest because these phenomena contribute to solute transport in soils. Commonly, preferential flow paths are associated with macropores or highly structured soils. We presented an analysis of the measured breakthrough curves (BTCs) of $Cl^-$ and $Cu^{2+}$ ions to test the occurrence of preferential flow in soils using miscible displacement technique under steady flow conditions. We also analyzed soil water retention curves and from this curves induced cumulative pore size distribution of undisturbed soils, which sampled from Ap1, B1, and C horizons of Songjeong series soils (the fine loamy, mesic family of Typic Hapludults). In this study, miscible displacement experiment on C horizon was excluded, because it is structureless sandy loam with saturated hydraulic conductivity of $5.2cmhr^{-1}$. The saturated hydraulic conductivity of Ap1 horizon was $2.0cmhr^{-1}$, which was about 7 times higher than that of B1 horizon ($0.27cm hr^{-1}$). Cumulative pore size distribution predicted that Ap1 horizon had more macropores (pore diameter larger than $49{\mu}m$, equivalent to -6 kpa of soil matric potential) than B1 horizon. The hydrodynamic dispersion coefficient from chloride BTCs was estimated as $1.3cm^2hr^{-1}$ for B1 and $34cm^2hr^{-1}$ for Ap1 horizon. However the retardation factors of B1 and Ap1 horizon were significantly different, i.e. 1 and 0.6, respectively, which means that there was distinct partition between mobile water and immobile phase in Ap1 horizon. The copper retardation effect of Ap1 horizon was less than that of B1 horizon, even though cation exchange capacity of Ap1 horizon was higher than that of B1 horizon. Thus, breakthrough curves of $Cl^-$ and $Cu^{2+}$ obviously showed the probability that preferential flow would occur in Ap1 horizon.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.18 no.4
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• pp.295-307
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• 2002

In the Nakdong River plain a very thick clayey soils are covered widely. Since the early 1990's, some huge reclamation projects have been performed for the development of industrial and residential complexes and so on. Despite a large number of soil investigations have been carried out for the projects, the geotechnical properties have never been elucidated well, so that the settlements of the ground due to the mischaracterized properties were greatly underestimated. Therefore, it has been needed to evaluate definitely the characteristics of the clayey soils, particularly for the compressibility characteristics to help understand the settlement behavior. For the compressibility characteristics of the Pusan clays, physical index and consolidation tests were conducted on the reconstituted and undisturbed samples. Using the result of physical index, the Pusan clays could be divided into two different units, which have different depositional environments. According to the concepts of Burland (1990) and Nagaraj et. al. (1990), the intrinsic state line and field compression curve of the Pusan clays could be established. It could be found from their concepts that the Pusan clays are under the cemented and young normally consolidated state and largely consisted of two units. The cementation of the clays was as well identified by compression index ratio (Tsuchida et. al.,1991) and sensitivity (Leroueil et. al.,1983).

• Journal of Radiation Protection and Research
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• v.23 no.2
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• pp.97-102
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• 1998

The cumulative deposition of $^{137}Cs$ in the soil of Korea has been studied. Using ${\gamma$-ray spertrometry, the conrentrations of $^{137}Cs$ were determined for the soil samples collected to a depth of 20 cm. The average accumulated depositions of $^{137}Cs$ were estimated roughly to be 2,501 ${\pm}$ $m^{-2}$ in the forest and 1,058 ${\pm}$ 322 Bq $m^{-2}$ in the hill. The inventory value of $^{137}Cs$ in the forest is about two times higher than that in the hill. Except for some cases, the concentrations of $^{137}Cs$ in the undisturbed soils decreased exponentially with increasing the soil depth. The influences of rainfall, organic matter content, clay content and pH on the deposition of $^{137}Cs$ were studied using the field method. Among these factors, the organic matter content played the most important role in the retention and relative mobility of $^{137}Cs$ in the soil. The other factors such as rainfall, clay content and pH showed weak correlation with the deposition of $^{137}Cs$ in the soil.

• Geotechnical Engineering
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• v.13 no.5
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• pp.89-100
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• 1997

It is very improtant to evaluate the reliable nonlinear deformational characteristics of soils not only in the analysis of geotechnical structures under working stress conditions but also for the soil dynamic problems. Field testings such as crosshole and pressuremeter tests can be used to determine the modulus of soils under in-situ conditions, but it is not possible to determine the modulus over the entire strain amplitude range. Laboratory methods such as resonant column 1 torsional shear test can be used to determine the modulus over the whole strain amplitude range, but it is very difficult to obtain the representative undisturbed samples on the sixte. For the reliable evaluation of nonlinear deformation characteristics of soils on a typical site, small strain modulus obtained from field testy and nomalized modulus reduction curve determined by laboratory bests need to be combined. In this paper, laboratory and Held testy were performed at a sixte which consisted of granite wearthered residual boils to evaluate the nonlinear deformational characteristics of coils such as the effects of strain amplitude, loading frequency, confining pressure and sample disturbance. It has been shorn that when the effects of these factors are properly taken into account, the stiffness values evaluated by various field and labrotary tests are comparable to each other fairly well. Finally, the procedure to evaluate the nonlinear deformstional characteristics of the sixte was proposed.

• Journal of the Korean GEO-environmental Society
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• v.15 no.5
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• pp.31-37
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• 2014

In situ investigations and laboratory tests using elastic wave have become popular in geotechnical and geoenvironmental engineering. Propagation velocity of elastic wave is the key index to evaluate the ground characteristics. To evaluate this, various methods were used in both time domain and frequency domain. In time domain, the travel time can be found from the two points that have the same phase such as peaks or first rises. Cross-correlation can also be used in time domain by evaluating the time shift amount that makes the product of signals of input and received waveforms maximum. In frequency domain, wave propagation velocity can be evaluated by computing the phase differences between the source and received waves. In this study, wave propagation velocity evaluated by the methods listed above were compared. Bender element tests were conducted on the specimens cut from the undisturbed hand-cut block samples obtained from Block 37 excavation site in Chicago, IL, US. The evaluation methods in time domain provides relatively wide range of wave propagation velocities due to the noise in signals and the sampling frequency of data logger. Frequency domain approach provides relatively accurate wave propagation velocities and is irrelevant to the sampling frequency of data logger.