• Tunnel and Underground Space
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• v.14 no.4
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• pp.248-260
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• 2004

Damage in brittle rock due to stress increase starts from initiation of microcracks, and then results in failure by forming macro failure planes due to propagation and coalescence of these discrete cracks. Conventionally, continuum approaches using macro-failure criteria or a number of elasto-plastic models have been major solution to implement rock damage and failure. However, actual brittle failure processes can be better described in phenomenological approach if initiation and propagation of discrete fractures are explicitly considered. This study presents damage and failure process of rock using a boundary element code, FRACOD, which has been developed to model fracturing process of rocks. Through a series of numerical uniaxial compressive tests, the feasibility of the developed model was verified, and realistic rock failure process was reproduced considering scale effects in rocks. In addition, the fracturing process and the corresponding rock damage in the vicinity of deep shaft in rock mass were presented as an application of this approach. This approach will be expected to contribute to finding better engineering solutions for the analysis of stability problems in brittle rock masses.

• Tunnel and Underground Space
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• v.16 no.2 s.61
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• pp.135-145
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• 2006

In this study, conditional simulation was conducted to estimate rock mass rating(RMR) in unsurveyed regions. Sequential Gaussian simulation(SGS) and sequential indicator simulation(SIS) were applied for estimating RMR from the bore hole logging data. The uncertainty of SGS and SIS was verified by sample cross validation. A subset composed of 5 bore hole logging data among the original 30 bore hole logging data was set aside as test data. The remainder was training data. The quality of SGS and SIS estimation on the testing data reflects how well it would perform in an unsupervised setting. SGS and SIS were useful stochastic methods to estimate the spatial distribution of rock mass classes correctly and assess the uncertainty of estimation quantitatively. The result of conditional simulation can offer useful information of rock mass classes such as RMR in unsurveyed regions.

• Tunnel and Underground Space
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• v.8 no.4
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• pp.287-295
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• 1998

Limit equilibrium method is widely used for the stability analysis of soil slopes. In jointed rock slopes however, the failure of the slope is largely dependent upon the strength and deformability of the joints in the rock mass and quite often failure occurs along the joints. This paper describes the use of ubiquitous joint model for the stability analysis of the jointed rock slopes. This model is essentially an anisotropic elasto-plastic model and can simulate two sets of joint in arbitrary orientations. Validation of the developed with the factor of safety equal to unity was selected when the shape of the failure plane is assumed log spiral. Then the factor of safety of the rock slope having two perpendicular joint sets was calculated while rotating joint orientations. Rusults were compared with limit equilibrium solutions on soil slopes having equivalent soil properties when plane sliding was assumed. Developed model predicted the factor of safety of jointed rock slope in a reasonable accuracy when joint spacing is sufficiently small.

• Tunnel and Underground Space
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• v.29 no.2
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• pp.89-107
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• 2019

Rock joints have an extremely important role in analyzing the mechanical stability and hydraulic characteristics of rock mass structures. Most rock joint parameters are generally indicated as a distribution by statistical techniques. In this research, calculation technique of Joint Center Volume (JCV) is analyzed, which is required for estimating the size distribution having the largest uncertainty among the joint parameters, then a new technique is proposed which is applicable regardless of the shape of survey window. The existing theoretical JCV calculation technique can be applied only to the plane window, and the complete enumeration techniques show the limitations in joint trace type and analysis time. This research aims to overcome the limitations in survey window shape and joint trace type through calculating JCV by using Monte Carlo simulation. The applicability of proposed technique is validated through the estimation results at non-planar survey windows such as curved surface and tunnel surface.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.36 no.12
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• pp.125-132
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• 2020

Embedded joints in the rock mass are a major constituent influencing its mechanical behavior. Numerical analysis requires a rigorous modeling methodology for the rock mass with detailed information regarding joint properties, orientation, spacing, and persistence. This paper provides a mechanical model for a jointed rock mass based on the implicit joint-continuum approach. Stiffness tensors for rock mass are evaluated for an assemblage of intact rock separated by sets of joint planes. It is a linear summation of compliance of each joint sets and intact rock in the serial stiffness system. In the application example, kinematic analysis for a planar failure of rock slope is comparable with empirical daylight envelope and its lateral limits. Since the developed implicit joint-continuity model is formulated on a continuum basis, it will be a major tool for the numerical simulations adopting published plenteous thermal-hydro-chemical experimental results.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.25 no.11
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• pp.53-60
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• 2009

Construction of a tunnel induces rock masses damage around the tunnel. The degree of damage produced on rock masses will affect on the mechanical and hydraulic behaviors of the rock masses. In this paper, P wave velocity measured by cross-hole test was used to assess rock masses damage around the test tunnel. Initiation of source signal was carried out using mechanical impact at the source installed borehole. In consequence, the generated P wave signal was low noise and apparent wave form, which allows accurate pick-up of first arrival time. From the test, the region where rock damage is expected shows relatively low P wave velocity. In addition, with multiple points of P wave velocity measurement along each cross-hole, two dimensional P wave tomography was obtained. The tomography provides apparent view of the rock damage behind the tunnel. The measured P wave velocity was correlated with features of rock masses, porosity and Q value.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.18 no.1
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• pp.141-152
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• 2002

Although a number of constitutive models have been proposed to define the behavior of geotechnical materials including elastic, plastic, and dynamic response, flew numerical models have been developed for the cyclic shear behavior of rock joints or interfaces. Such realistic constitutive models play an important role in analyzing and predicting the response of joints under dynamic loads. The purpose of this research is to verify the constitutive model modified for rough granite joints based on Disturbed State Concept(DSC) model, which has been successfully verified with respect to other materials such as dry sand-steel interface and wet sand-concrete interface. Furthermore, DSC model is compared and verified with respect to cyclic shear tests and numerical analysis results based on Plesha model. Based on the results of this research, it can be stated that DSC model is capable of characterizing the cyclic shear behavior of rough granite joints under dynamic loads.

• The Journal of Engineering Geology
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• v.19 no.4
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• pp.483-492
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• 2009

During construction of a tunnel and underground structure, it is very important to acquire accurate information of the rock mass will be excavated. In this study, the drill monitoring method was applied for rapid prediction of geological condition ahead of the tunnel face. Mechanical data(speed, torque and feed pressure) from drilling process using a hydraulic drilling machine were analyzed to assess rock mass characteristics. Rock mass information acquired during excavation from drilling monitoring were compared with results from horizontal boring and tunnel seismic profiling(TSP). As the result, the drilling monitoring method is useful to assess rock mass condition such as geological structures and physical properties ahead of the tunnel face.

• Tunnel and Underground Space
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• v.25 no.5
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• pp.450-461
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• 2015

Extensive numerical experiments have been carried out to investigate effect of block size and fracture geometry on hydraulic characteristics of fractured rock masses based on connected pipe flow in DFN systems. Using two fracture sets, a total of 72 2-D fracture configurations were generated with different combinations of fracture size distribution and deterministic fracture density. The directional block conductivity including the theoretical block conductivity, principal conductivity tensor and average block conductivity for each generated fracture network system were calculated using the 2-D equivalent pipe network method. There exist significant effects of block size, orientation, density and size of fractures in a fractured rock mass on its hydraulic behavior. We have been further verified that it is more difficult to reach the REV size for the fluid flow network with decreasing intersection angle of two fracture sets, fracture plane density and fracture size distribution.

• Tunnel and Underground Space
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• v.27 no.2
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• pp.100-108
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• 2017

As a measure of the combined effect of fracture geometry, the fabric tensor parameters could quantify the status of the connected fluid flow paths in discrete fracture network (DFN). The correlation analysis between fabric tensor parameters and hydraulic properties of the 2-D DFN was performed in this study. It is found that there exists a strong nonlinear relationship between the directional conductivity and the fabric tensor component estimated in the direction normal to the direction of hydraulic conductivity. The circular radial plots without significant variation of the first invariant ($F_0$) of fabric tensor for different sized 2-D DFN block are a necessary condition for treating representative element volume (REV) of a fractured rock mass. The relative error (ER) between the numerically calculated directional hydraulic conductivity and the theoretical directional hydraulic conductivity decreases with the increase in $F_0$. A strong functional relation seems to exist between the $F_0$ and the average block hydraulic conductivity.