• Journal of Korean Tunnelling and Underground Space Association
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• v.23 no.1
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• pp.37-45
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• 2021

The construction of the tunnel portal should be careful because cover depth is shallow and it is difficult to exhibit the arching effect. Tunnel stability may be reduced with additional embankment above the portal of tunnel. In this study, in order to examine the stability of the tunnel according to additional embankment above the portal of tunnel, numerical analysis was performed while changing the ground conditions and height of embankment. As a result of the numerical analysis, it was found that the allowable flexural compressive stress of shotcrete and allowable axial force of rockbolts were exceeded when the height of additional embankment was 12 m in rock mass rating V. When considering the displacement, the range of the plastic region and the behavior of the support materials, the tunnel stability seems to be greatly reduced if the height of additional embankment above the portal of tunnel exceeds 10 m.

• KSCE Journal of Civil and Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.31 no.4C
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• pp.147-154
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• 2011

Currently NATM tunnels are designed by applying the initial ground loads caused during construction to the primary supports, conisting of shotcrete, steel ribs and rock bolts. For long term considerations, it is assumed that the primary supports lose its functionality and therefore the secondary support, i.e. concrete lining, is design to resist against the entire ground loads. But the steel ribs, usually applied to bad ground conditions, are embedded in shotcrete causing very little corrosion and therefore the assumption that the primary support will lose all of its functionality is too conservative. Also even though shotcrete carbonates in long term, excluding it from design is also too conservative. In this study, we have, through analytical and numerical analysis, set a rational level of support pressure and allowable relaxed rock mass height sustainable by the primary support for long term design. Changes in sectional forces of the concrete lining considering the calculated support pressure of the primary supports was also carried out. Shallow subway tunnels were considered in the analysis with weathered rock and soft rock ground conditions. The analysis results showed that, by considering the support pressure of steel ribs, an economical design of the concrete lining is possible.

• Journal of Korean Tunnelling and Underground Space Association
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• v.8 no.4
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• pp.365-375
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• 2006

The structural analysis for the secondary lining of tunnels is generally performed by a frame analysis model. This model requires a ground loosening load estimated by some empirical methods, but the load is likely to be subjective and too large. The ground load acting on the secondary lining is due to the loss of the supporting function of the first support members such as shotcrete and rockbolts. Therefore, the equilibrium condition of the ground and the first support members should be considered to estimate the ground load acting on the secondary lining. Ground-lining interaction model, shortly GLI model, is developed on the basis of the concept that the secondary lining supports the ground deformation triggered by the loss of the support capacity of the first support members. Accordingly, the GLI model can take into account the ground load reflecting effectively not only the complex ground conditions but the installed conditions of the first support members. The load acting on the secondary lining besides the ground load includes the groundwater pressure and earthquake load. For the structural reinforcement of the secondary lining based on the ultimate strength design method, the factored load and various load combination should be considered. Since the GLI model has difficulty in dealing with the factored load, introduced in this study is the superposition principle in which the section moment and force of the secondary lining estimated for individual loads are multiplied by the load factors. Finally, the design method of the secondary lining using the GLI model is applied to the case of a shallow subway tunnel.

• Journal of Korean Tunnelling and Underground Space Association
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• v.10 no.3
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• pp.245-256
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• 2008

The steel rib, one of the main support of tunnel, plays a very important role to stabilize tunnel excavation surface until shotcrete or rockbolt starts to perform a supporting function. In general, a steel rib at the horizontal funnel is being installed in the direction of gravity which is known favorable in terms of constructability and stability. However, as the direction of principal stress at the inclined tunnel wall is different from that of gravity, the optimum direction of steel rib could be different from that at the horizontal tunnel. In this study, a numerical method was used to analyze the direction of force that would develope displacement at the inclined tunnel surface, and that direction could be the optimum direction of steel rib. The support efficiency of steel rib could be maximized when the steel rib was installed to resist the displacement of the tunnel. Three directions which were recommended for the inclined tunnels in the Korea Tunnel Design Standard were used for the numerical models of steel rib direction. In conclusion, the results show that all displacement angle of the models are almost perpendicular to the tunnel surface regardless of face angle. So if the steel rib would be installed perpendicular to the inclined tunnel surface, the support efficiency of steel rib could be maximized.

• Geotechnical Engineering
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• v.14 no.5
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• pp.5-16
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• 1998

2-D numerical methods have been applied to analyze the stability of tunnels because of computation efficiency, though the ground around the tunnel under construction shows 3-D reformational behaviour due to the transverse and longitudinal arching effects. Load distribution factors are introduced to the 2-D analysis for the consideration of the effects of the tunnel advance in three dimensions. The load distribution factors influence significantly the ground deformation and the load of primary supports like shotcrete and rockbolts. According to the previous studies for 3-D numerical studies. it was shown that load distribution factors were heavily dependent on the ground deformational properties, tunnel size and the advance length of a tunnel. However, as the quantitative methods evaluating the factors have not been presented yet, constant values have been assigned to the factors for 2-D analysis even if the conditions for tunnel design are different. Accordingly, this paper presents the method to evaluate quantitatively the load distribution factors through the regression analysis of 3-D analysis data on 72 design cases. Also, new modification to the load distribution factors are suggested for the ring-cut excavation method because the conventional 2-D analysis is not able to consider the support effects of the core left on the tunnel face.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.21 no.5
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• pp.83-92
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• 2005

The aim of this study was to investigate damage conditions of cut slope structures due to acid rock drainage (ARB) and to assess the acid production potential of various rocks. Acid rock drainage is produced by the oxidation of sulfide minerals contained in coal mine zone and mineralization belt of Pyeongan supergroup and Ogcheon group, pyrite-bearing andesite, and Tertiary acid sulfate soils in Korea. Most of cut slopes producing ARB have been treated with shotcrete to reduce ARD. According to the field observations, ARD had an adverse effect on slope structures. The corrosion of shotcrete, anchors and rock bolts and the bad germination and growth diseases of covering plants due to ARD were observed in the field. The concentration of heavy metals and pH of ARD from cut slope exceeded the environmental standard, indicating a high potential of environmental pollution of surrounding soil, surface water and ground water by the ARD. According to acid base accounting (ABA) of the studied samples, hydrothermally altered volcanic rocks, tuffs, coaly shales, tailings of metallic mine had a relatively high potential of acid production but gneiss and granite had no or less acid production potential. It is expected that the number of cut slopes will increase hereafter considering the present construction trend. In order to reduce the adverse effect of ARD in construction sites, we need to secure the data base for potential ARD producing area and to develop the ARD reduction technologies suitable.

• Journal of Korean Tunnelling and Underground Space Association
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• v.24 no.6
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• pp.617-628
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• 2022

A ground support pattern should be designed by properly integrating various support materials in accordance with the rock mass grade when constructing a tunnel, and a technical decision must be made in this process by professionals with vast construction experiences. However, designing supports at the early stage of tunnel design, such as feasibility study or basic design, may be very challenging due to the short timeline, insufficient budget, and deficiency of field data. Meanwhile, the design of the support pattern can be performed more quickly and reliably by utilizing the machine learning technique and the accumulated design data with the rapid increase in tunnel construction in South Korea. Therefore, in this study, the design data and ground exploration data of 48 road tunnels in South Korea were inspected, and data about 19 items, including eight input items (rock type, resistivity, depth, tunnel length, safety index by tunnel length, safety index by rick index, tunnel type, tunnel area) and 11 output items (rock mass grade, two items for shotcrete, three items for rock bolt, three items for steel support, two items for concrete lining), were collected to automatically determine the rock mass class and the support pattern. Three machine learning models (S1, A1, A2) were developed using two machine learning algorithms (SVR, ANN) and organized data. As a result, the A2 model, which applied different loss functions according to the output data format, showed the best performance. This study confirms the potential of support pattern design using machine learning, and it is expected that it will be able to improve the design model by continuously using the model in the actual design, compensating for its shortcomings, and improving its usability.

• Journal of Korean Tunnelling and Underground Space Association
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• v.21 no.4
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• pp.479-499
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• 2019

State assessment of an operational tunnel is usually done by performing visual inspection and durability tests by following the detailed guideline for safety inspection (SI) and/ or precision inspection for safety and diagnosis (PISD). In this study, 12 NATM tunnels, which have been operational for more than 10 years, were inspected to figure out the cause of longitudinal cracks for the purpose of modifying the scoring items in the state assessment NATM tunnel related to the longitudinal crack and the thickness of concrete lining. All investigated tunnels were classified into four groups depending on the shape and usage of each tunnel. The causes of longitudinal crack occurrence were analyzed by investigating the correlations between the longitudinal crack and the following four factors: the patterns of ground excavation; construction state of primary support system; characteristics of material properties of the concrete lining; and thickness of lining which was obtained by Ground Penetration Radar (GPR) tests. It was found that influencing factors causing longitudinal cracks in the lining were closely related with the construction condition of the primary support system, i.e. shotcrete, rockbolt, and steel-rib; crack occurrences were not much affected by the excavation patterns. As for the properties of concrete lining materials, occurrence of the longitudinal crack was mostly affected by the following three items: w/c ratio; contents of cement; and strength of lining. When estimating the lining thickness of the concrete lining by GPR tests and taking thickness effect into account in the statement assessment, it was concluded that increase of the index score by an average of 0.03 (ranging from 0.01 up to 0.071) is needed; a more realistic way of state assessment should be proposed in which the increased index score caused by lack of lining thickness should be taken into account.

• Journal of Korean Tunnelling and Underground Space Association
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• v.2 no.2
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• pp.11-21
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• 2000

Tunnelling has been created as a great extent in view of less land space available because the growth of population in metropolitan has been accelerated at a faster pace than the development of the cities. In tunnelling, it is often faced that measures are obliged to be taken without confirmation for such abnormality as diverged movement of surrounding rock mass, growing crack of shotcrete and yielding of rockbolts. In this case, it is usually said that the judgments of experienced engineers for the selection of measure are importance and allowed us to get over the situations in many construction sites. But decrease of such experienced engineers need us to develop the new system to assist the selection of measures for the abnormality without any experiences of similar tunnelling sites. In this study, After a lot of tunnelling reinforcement methods were surveyed and the detail application were studied, an expert system was developed to predict the safety of tunnel and choose proper tunnel reinforcement system using fuzzy quantification theory and fuzzy inference rule based on tunnel information database. The expert system developed in this study have two main parts named pre-module and post-module. Pre-module decides tunnel information imput items based on the tunnel face mapping information which can be easily obtained in-situ site. Then, using fuzzy quantification theory II, fuzzy membership function is composed and tunnel safety level is inferred through this membership function. The comparison result between the predicted reinforcement system level and measured ones was very similar. In-situ data were obtained in three tunnel sites including subway tunnel under Han river. This system will be very helpful to make the most of in-situ data and suggest proper applicability of tunnel reinforcement system developing more resonable tunnel support method from dependance of some experienced experts for the absent of guide.