• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.17 no.1
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• pp.31-45
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• 2019

In this study the spatial variability of soils is substantiated physically and numerically by using random field theory. Heterogeneous samples are fabricated by combining nine homogeneous soil clusters that are assumed to be elements of an adopted random field. Homogeneous soils are prepared by mixing different percentages of kaolin and bentonite at water contents equivalent to their respective liquid limits. Comprehensive characteristic laboratory tests were carried out before embarking on direct shear experiments to deduce the basic correlations and properties of nine homogeneous soil clusters that serve to reconstitute the heterogeneous samples. The tests consist of Atterberg limits, and Oedometric and unconfined compression tests. The undrained shear strength of nine soil clusters were measured by the unconfined compression test data, and then correlations were made between the water content and the strength and stiffness of soil samples with different consistency limits. The direct shear strength of heterogeneous samples of different stochastic properties was then evaluated by physical and numerical modelling using FISH code programming in finite difference software of $FLAC^{3D}$. The results of the experimental and stochastic numerical analyses were then compared. The deviation of numerical simulations from direct shear load-displacement profiles taken from different sources were discussed, potential sources of error was introduced and elaborated. This study was primarily to explain the mathematical and physical procedures of sample preparation in stochastic soil mechanics. It can be extended to different problems and applications in geotechnical engineering discipline to take in to account the variability of strength and deformation parameters.

• Geotechnical Engineering
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• v.12 no.5
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• pp.17-26
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• 1996

The undrained behavior of Asan marine soil was investigated by using an automated triaxial testing device. The stress-strain behavior at the preand postfailure state of marine soil under undrained compression and eatension conditions was compared with the behavior of pure silt, pure clay and the overall behavior of Asan marine soil was predicted with the modified Camflay model and the bounding surface model. The marine soil sampled in Asan bay area was clayey silts with 70oA silt-30% clay content and the testing samples were prepared in both undisturbed and remolded conditions. All samples are normally consolidated with 400 kPa of effective mean confining pressure and each sample is unloaded to 200, 100, 67 kPa, respectively. And then the shear test was performed with different confining pressure. According to experimental results, there exists an unique failure line whose slope is lower than silt's and higher than clay's. It is identified that the undrained shear strength of normally consolidated samples increases after crossing the phase transformation line because of volume dilation tendency which is not seen in clay. Overconsolidated samples show different soil behavior compared with pure silt due to its tendency of change in volume. It is also found that the overall behavior of Asan marine soil cannot be predicted precisely with the modified Cam-clay model and the bounding surface model.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.30 no.7
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• pp.5-15
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• 2014

Abandoned mine deposits are exposed to various physico-chemical geo-environmental hazards and disasters, such as acid mine drainage, water contamination, erosion, and landslides. This paper presents the ring shear characteristics of waste materials. The ring shear box with a rotatable O-ring was used in this study. Three tests were performed: (i) Shear stress-time relationship for given normal stress and shear speed, (ii) shear stress as a function of shear speed, and (iii) shear stress as a function of normal stress. For a given normal stress (50 kPa) and speed (0.1 mm/sec), the materials tested exhibit a strain softening behavior, regardless of drainage condition. The peak and residual shear stresses were determined for each normal stress and shear speed. The shear stress was measured when shear speed is equal to 0.01, 0.1, 1, 10, 50, 100 mm/sec or when normal stress is equal to 20, 40, 60, 80, 100, 150 kPa. From the test results, we found that the shear stress increases with increasing shear speed. The shear stress also increases with increasing normal stress. However, different types of shearing mode were observed in drained and undrained conditions. Under drained condition, particle crushing was observed from the shearing zone to the bottom of lower ring. Under undrained condition, particle crushing was observed only at the shearing zone, which has approximately 1 cm thick. It means that a significant high shear speed under undrained condition can result in increased landslide hazard.

• Proceedings of the Korean Geotechical Society Conference
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• 2008.03a
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• pp.1-6
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• 2008

When a saturated clay is sampled in an undisturbed manner from a bore hole, the sample extends vertically and shrinks horizontally under undrained conditions due to stress release. The conventional consolidation test specimen is trimmed from the expanded sample so that its diameter is equal to the inner diameter of the consolidation test ring, this test procedure does not reproduce the actual consolidation behavior. The measurement of sample extension was conducted by means of overcoring method found that the extension strains were 1 to 2%. To simulate the in-situ consolidation behavior, the consolidation test method that uses a specimen with a slightly smaller diameter than the inside diameter of consolidometer so that the specimen expands laterally to the inside of the ring.

• Journal of The Korean Society of Agricultural Engineers
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• v.66 no.1
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• pp.15-24
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• 2024

Unlike artificially created homogeneous materials, the process of calculating the elastic modulus of natural soil involves the possibility of errors. Because the stress-strain behavior of soil is nonlinear, the secant modulus of elasticity is often used based on 1/2 of the stress at failure. Since soil has the property of changing its elastic modulus depending on the confining pressure, numerical analysis models that analyze its behavior inevitably include complex elements. The hyperbolic model, which relatively accurately simulates the behavior immediately after loading in soft ground, assumes that the stress-strain curve of the consolidated undrained triaxial test is hyperbolic and requires the slope of the tangent line at the starting point. However, the slope of the initial tangent in the stress-strain curve obtained from an actual triaxial test is difficult to have regularity according to changes in confining pressure. Additionally, due to the characteristics of a hyperbola, even small changes in related factors cause large changes in the hyperbola. Therefore, there is a lot of randomness in the process of calculating model parameters from the triaxial test results, which causes large differences in the results. Therefore, the method of calculating the initial elastic modulus by the consolidation test presented in this study is also used to verify the method by the triaxial test. It can be applied. However, since this study was applied to only one sample showing typical consolidation characteristics, it is necessary to check samples with various physical properties in the future.

• Journal of The Korean Society of Agricultural Engineers
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• v.47 no.4
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• pp.43-52
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• 2005

It is known in some literatures that the B value is not equal to unity in saturated soil when effective stress is given, in which the B Value is the ratio of measured excess pore water pressure and isometric loading pressure. In this study the B value was measured on various effective stresses and on various incremental loading stresses in various grain size of specimens with saturated sand. The test results showed that the B value was affected largely by grain size of sand in specimen and the amount of effective stress. There was the semi-logarithmic relationship between B value and effective stress, and also there was the linear relationship between the gradient of the former semi-logarithmic relationship and grain size of specimen.

• Proceedings of the Korean Geotechical Society Conference
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• 2009.03a
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• pp.792-797
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• 2009

The stress-strain characteristics of compacted bentonite are investigated using experimental triaxial compression test by Hoek-cell. Special attention given to various dry density and water absorption ratio. Based on the test results, it is shown that the stress-strain relationship of compacted bentonite is highly influenced by dry density and water absorption ratio. Also, characteristics of Bentonite is similar to the clay rather than sand. Strength of compressed Bentonite increases with higher dry density. It shows maximum strength value, if in a same condition with dry density and constrain pressure. So we determine that value as the optimistic moisture contents for the maximun strength of compressed Bentonite.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.7 no.1
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• pp.37-53
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• 2014

A Web-based pile load test (WBPLT) system was developed and implemented in this study. Object-oriented and concept-based software design techniques were adopted to integrate the pile load test database into the system. A total of 673 case histories of pile load test were included in the database. The data consisted of drilled shaft and driven precast concrete pile axial load tests in drained, undrained, and gravel loading conditions as well as pre-analyzed data and back-calculated design parameters. Unified modeling language, a standard software design tool, was utilized to design the WBPLT system architecture with five major concept-based components. These components provide the static structure and dynamic behavior of system message flows in a visualized manner. The open-source Apache Web server is the building block of the WBPLT system, and PHP Web programming language implements the operation of the WBPLT components, particularly the automatic translation of user query into structured query language. A simple search and inexpensive query can be implemented through the Internet browser. The pile load test database is helpful, and data can be easily retrieved and utilized worldwide for research and advanced applications.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.9 no.5
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• pp.585-599
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• 2015

Laboratory model tests were conducted to investigate the effect of surcharge loading rate on the magnitude of lateral displacement of prefabricated vertical drains (PVDs) improved deposit. The test results indicate that under the condition that the system had sufficient factor of safety (FS) ($FS{\geq}1.2$), for the similar model ground under the same total applied surcharge load, the lateral displacement increases with the increase of loading rate. The test results have been used to check the validity of a previously proposed method for predicting the maximum lateral displacement, and it shows that the data points are around the middle line of the predicted range, which supports the usefulness of the proposed method. The basic idea of the prediction method is an empirical relationship between the normalized lateral displacement (NLD) and a ration of load to the undrained shear strength of the deposit (RLS). The model test results offer some modifications of the NLD-RLS relationship: (1) instead of a bilinear relationship, NLD-RLS relationship may be entirely nonlinear; (2) the upper bound value of RLS for the proposed method can be used may be limited to 2.1 instead of the originally proposed value of 3.0.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.34 no.5
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• pp.473-480
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• 2023

Acid rain of soils has a significant impact on mechanical properties. An X-ray diffraction test, scanning electron microscope (SEM) test, laser particle size analysis test, and triaxial unconsolidated undrained (UU) test were carried out in red clay soils with different compaction degrees under the effect of different concentrations of acid. The experiments demonstrated that: the dissolution effect of acid rain on colluvium weakened with the increase in the compacting degree under the condition of certain pH values, i.e., the damage to the structure of red clay soil was relatively light, where the number of newly increased pores in the soil decreased and the agglomeration of soil particles increased; for the same compacting degree, the structural gap decreased, and the agglomeration increased with the increase in the pH value (acidity decreases) of the acid rain; the dissolution rate of Si, Al, Fe, and other elemental minerals and cement in red clay soil was found to be higher under the effect of acid rain, in turn destroying the original structure of the soil body and producing a large number of pores. This is macroscopically expressed as the decrease of the soil cohesion and internal friction angle, thereby reducing the shear strength of the soil body.