• Economic and Environmental Geology
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• v.42 no.4
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• pp.357-366
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• 2009

Since weathering weakens the rock fabric and exaggerates any structural weakness, it affects mechanical properties as well as physical and chemical properties of rock. Weathering leads to a decrease in density, strength, friction angle and cohesion, and subsequently it affects negatively on the stability of rock slope. The purpose of the study is to investigate the changes of the rock slope stability caused by discontinuities which have different weathering grades. For that, the discontinuity samples which are divided into two different weathering grades are obtained from the field and tested their mechanical properties such as JCS, JRC and residual friction angle. In order to evaluate the effects on the stability of slope due to weathering, the deterministic analysis is carried out. That is, the factors of safety for planar failure are calculated for rock masses which have two different weathering grades, such as fresh and weathered rock mass. However, since the JRC and friction angle values are widely scattered and the deterministic analysis cannot consider the variation, the factors of safety cannot represent properly the stability of the rock slope. Therefore, the probabilistic analysis has been used to consider the scattered values. In the deterministic analysis, the factors of safety for the fresh discontinuity and weathered discontinuity are 1.25 and 1.0, respectively. The results indicate the fresh discontinuities are stable for planar failure and the weathered discontinuities are marginally stable. However, the probabilities of failure for the fresh discontinuity and weathered discontinuity are 25.6% and 45.9%, respectively. This shows that both discontinuities are analyzed as unstable in the probabilistic analysis.

• Tunnel and Underground Space
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• v.20 no.2
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• pp.82-91
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• 2010

Grouting technology is one of the ground improvement methods used in water controlling and reinforcement of rock mass in underground structure construction. It is necessarily required to find out the characteristics of grout flow through discontinuities in a rock mass for an adequate grout design and performance assessment. Laminar flow is not always applicable in simulating a grout flow in a rock mass, since the rock joints usually have apertures at a micro-scale and the flow through these joints is affected by the joint roughness and the velocity profile of the flow changes partially near the roughness. Thus, the influence of joint roughness and aperture on the grout flow in rough rock joint was numerically investigated in this study. The commercial computational fluid dynamics code, FLUENT, was applied for this purpose. The computed results by embedded Herschel-Bulkley model and VOF (volume of fluid) model, which are applicable to simulate grout flow in a narrow rock joint that is filled with air and water, were well compared with that of analytical results and previously published laboratory test for the verification. The injection pressure required to keep constant injection rate of grout was calculated in a variety of Joint Roughness Coefficient (JRC) and aperture conditions, and the effect of joint roughness and aperture on grout flow were quantified.