• Tunnel and Underground Space
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• v.17 no.1 s.66
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• pp.32-42
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• 2007

Severe damage can occur around deposition holes due to complex interaction of thermo-hydro-mechanical (THM) loading during the long term operation of high level radioactive waste repository. Many candidate sites for repository are located in crystalline rock mass, therefore mechanism of damage follows the form of brittle fracture and failure. This paper briefly introduces major outcomes from 15 years international collaborative project, DECOVALEX, and presents major study results for current ongoing benchmark test study from DECOVALEX-THMC, to evaluate the effect of THM loading to rock mass in excavation damaged zone (EDZ) near deposition holes. Through benchmark test model by simplifying THM loading to boundary loading obtained numerical results are compared, and discrete fracture interaction after up to 1 million years operation is discussed.

• International Journal of Highway Engineering
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• v.8 no.4 s.30
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• pp.25-36
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• 2006

Through field surveys and evaluation on several widened concrete pavements, issues on construction and design related problems are broken down into three categories to be discussed; poor smoothness, influence of traffic vibration on concrete curing, and poor connection to the existing pavement. There are many places where about 100mm only of the marginal strip is removed and where defects such as widening and faulting are observed. Also cracks arise again from the patched areas due to stress concentration near the joint. Roughness on the widened concrete pavement was evaluated and there are some stations where the smoothness limit is over passed. For design consideration, shortage of the required force in the tie-bar is expected in case of road widening specially from 3 lanes to 4 lanes. Finally the average pull-out force of specimens made from the current practice was about 57% of the required force. New connecting methods were suggested in this study.

• Journal of Nuclear Fuel Cycle and Waste Technology(JNFCWT)
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• v.17 no.2
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• pp.183-202
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• 2019

For design and performance assessment of a high-level radioactive waste (HLW) disposal system, it is necessary to understand the characteristics of coupled thermo-hydro-mechanical (THM) behavior. However, in previous studies for the Korean Reference HLW Disposal System (KRS), thermal analysis was performed to determine the spacing of disposal tunnels and interval of disposition holes without consideration of the coupled THM behavior. Therefore, in this study, TOUGH2-MP/FLAC3D is used to conduct THM modeling for performance assessment of the Korean Reference HLW Disposal System (KRS). The peak temperature remains below the temperature limit of $100^{\circ}C$ for the whole period. A rapid rise of temperature caused by decay heat occurs in the early years, and then temperature begins to decrease as decay heat from the waste decreases. The peak temperature at the bentonite buffer is around $96.2^{\circ}C$ after about 3 years, and peak temperature at the rockmass is $68.2^{\circ}C$ after about 17 years. Saturation of the bentonite block near the canister decreases in the early stage, because water evaporation occurs owing to temperature increase. Then, saturation of the bentonite buffer and backfill increases because of water intake from the rockmass, and bentonite buffer and backfill are fully saturated after about 266 years. The stress is calculated to investigate the effect of thermal stress and swelling pressure on the mechanical behavior of the rockmass. The calculated stress is compared to a spalling criterion and the Mohr-Coulumb criterion for investigation of potential failure. The stress at the rockmass remains below the spalling strength and Mohr-Coulumb criterion for the whole period. The methodology of using the TOUGH2-MP/FLAC3D simulator can be applied to predict the long-term behavior of the KRS under various conditions; these methods will be useful for the design and performance assessment of alternative concepts such as multi-layer and multi-canister concepts for geological spent fuel repositories.

• Journal of Korean Tunnelling and Underground Space Association
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• v.16 no.3
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• pp.311-320
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• 2014

High strength concrete is not only vulnerable to the occurrence of spalling which generates the loss of cross-section in concrete structures but produces faster degradation in its mechanical properties than normal strength concrete in the event of fire. This study aims to evaluate fire resistance of high strength segment concrete with PET fibers mixed to prevent spalling under ISO834 (2hr) and RABT fire curve. As results, the samples without PET fibers show the concrete loss up to the depth of about 8 cm and 9.5 cm from the surface exposed to fire under ISO834 and RABT fire curve respectively. The samples mixed with PET fiber of 0.1% show no spalling under ISO834 fire curve and the spalled thickness of 6.5 cm under RABT fire curve after the fire tests. Finally, the sample mixed with PET fiber of 0.2% shows no spalling under RABT fire curve. The results indicate that the suitable amounts of PET fiber for securing fire resistance performance of this high strength segment concrete are 0.1% under ISO834 fire curve and 0.2% under RABT fire curve. However, even though spalling does not occur, it is necessary to repair the deterioration of concrete up to 4 cm from the surface exposed to fire after fire.

• International Journal of Highway Engineering
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• v.4 no.2 s.12
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• pp.33-42
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• 2002

The cracks in the pavements result from drying shrinkage, temperature change, repeated traffic loadings and so on. The reduction of soil support, spatting and many local failures are caused by water and incompressible foreign materials infiltrated into the cracks. In order to reduce this kind of problems the crack width must be controlled and managed by the accurate measurement. The current method is a visual survey using a microscope, which requires traffic blocking. The purpose of this study is to find the best condition to measure accurate crack width using automated pavement condition survey equipment running at the similar speed as other vehicles. In this study pavement surfaces are filmed on an enlarged scale by the camera with a zoom lens, and then the proper focal distance is determined according to the crack width through a pilot survey. The conditions for measurement of the accurate crack width using the image processing technique are suggested by comparing crack widths surveyed using a microscope in the field with those computed by various factors in the image processing program, STADI-2. In conclusion, the camera with a focal distance of 75m could detect crack range of 0.5mm$\sim$1.2mm In width with an accuracy of 80% for CRCP. The camera with a focal distance of 12.5mm could detect crack range of 1.8mm$\sim$3.3mm in width with an accuracy of 90% for asphalt pavement.

• Journal of the Korea Concrete Institute
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• v.18 no.3 s.93
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• pp.355-360
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• 2006

The Alkali-Silica Reaction(ASR) may cause a serious failure in the concrete pavements and structures. Several researches in some nations have conducted the continuous studies to prevent failure of the concrete structures by the ASR distress as well as the studies to manifest the mechanism. The researches on the ASR have not been performed affluently in Korea because the distress due to ASR has seldom been reported literarily. In this study, we tried to set up the systematic scheme practically for verifying the cause of distress due to ASR by using the visual inspections in field, the chemical method, petrographic analysis, and Electron Dispersive X-ray Spectrometer(EDX) method of Scanning Electron Microscopy(SEM) in laboratory. The chemical method, petrographic method using SEM, and X-ray method were used to verify the cause of pattern crack on the surface and internal crack in the plain concrete pavement. It can be concluded that the distress of a specific site in plain concrete pavement was mainly due to ASR. The chemical method, the petrographic method and EDX method using SEM may be the effective tools for verifying the cause of AAR distresses.

• Tunnel and Underground Space
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• v.31 no.4
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• pp.221-242
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• 2021

A numerical study of the performance assesment of coupled thermo-hydro-mechanical (THM) processes in improved Korean reference disposal system (KRS⁺) for high-level radioactive waste is conducted using TOUGH2-MP/FLAC3D simulator. Decay heat from high-level radioactive waste increases the temperature of the repository, and it decreases as decay heat is reduced. The maximum temperature of the repository is below a maximum temperature criterion of 100℃. Saturation of bentonite buffer adjacent to the canister is initially reduced due to pore water evaporation induced by temperature increase. Bentonite buffer is saturated 250 years after the disposal of high-level radioactive waste by inflow of groundwater from the surrounding rock mass. Initial saturation of rock mass decreases as groundwater in rock mass is moved to bentnonite buffer by suction, but rock mass is saturated after inflow of groundwater from the far-field area. Stress changes at rock mass are compared to the Mohr-Coulomb failure criterion and the spalling strength in order to investigate the potential rock failure by thermal stress and swelling pressure. Additional simulations are conducted with the reduced spacing of deposition holes. The maximum temperature of bentonite buffer exceeds 100℃ as deposition hole spacing is smaller than 5.5 m. However, temperature of about 56.1% volume of bentonite buffer is below 90℃. The methodology of numerical modeling used in this study can be applied to the performance assessment of coupled THM processes for high-level radioactive waste repositories with various input parameters and geological conditions such as site-specific stress models and geothermal gradients.

• KSCE Journal of Civil and Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.26 no.4D
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• pp.593-600
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• 2006

Joint opening of jointed concrete pavement is caused by change in temperature and humidity of adjoined slab. The magnitude of joint opening influences on the load-transfer-efficiency and the behavior of sealant. If temperature or humidity decreases, joint opening increases. Generally maximum joint opening of a given joint is predicted by using AASHTO equation. While different magnitudes of joint opening at the individual joints have been observed in a given pavement section, AASHTO equation is limited to predict average joint opening in a given pavement section. Therefore the AASHTO equation may underestimate maximum joint for the half of joint in a given pavement section. Joints showing larger opening than the designed may experience early joint sealant failure, early faulting. Also unexpected spalling may be followed due to invasion of fine aggregate into the joints after sealant pop-off. In this study, the variation of the joint opening in a given pavement section was investigated based on the LTPP SMP data. Factors affecting on the variation are explored. Finally a probabilistic joint opening model is developed. This model can account for the reliability of the magnitude of joint opening so that the designer can select the ratio of underestimated joint opening.

• Tunnel and Underground Space
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• v.34 no.2
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• pp.169-184
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• 2024

This study investigates acoustic emission (AE) and micro-deformation characteristics of circular openings through biaxial compression experiments. The experimental results showed a significant increase in the frequency, count, energy, and amplitude of AE signals immediately before damage occurred in the circular opening. The differences in frequency and count between before and after damage initiation were significantly pronounced, indicating suitable factors for identifying damage occurrence in circular openings. The results for digital image correlation (DIC) technique revealed that micro-deformation was concentrated around the openings, as evidenced by the spatial distribution of strain. In addition, spalling was observed at the end of the experiments. The AE and micro-deformation characteristics presented in this study are expected to serve as fundamental data for evaluating the stability of underground openings and boreholes for deep subsurface projects.