• Geotechnical Engineering
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• v.13 no.6
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• pp.71-94
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• 1997

It is important to evaluate rock strength in order to check stability of a rock slope or to design a structure built on rock. However, test methods used for the evaluation have some difficulties since rock samples provide various deviation of strength due to micro cracks in the samples and teat errors, Also, reliable data have not been accumulated for the rock strength in Korea. Therefore, simple teat methods that can be used easily for investication of rock strength in field or in laboratory are not provided sufficiently yet. This study is to investigate variation of the rock strength due to the degree of weathering and to evaluate the degree of weathering by types of rocks, by using data that have been obtained for several years. Therefore, it is possible to provide a relationship between several rock strength values by performing tests such as uniaxial compression teat, point load test, schmidt hammer teat, absorption ratio best and slaking durability tests. The equations of relationships that can be used to estimate rock strength by using simple test methods in field and in laboratory are proposed.

• Journal of the Mineralogical Society of Korea
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• v.17 no.1
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• pp.23-35
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• 2004

The weathering characteristics of periodically submerged sedimentary rocks in the Sayeon dam, Ulsan was examined by field work, electron probe micro-analysis, X-ray diffraction, and X-ray fluorescence spectrometry. Analysis of fracture zone and exfoliation showed the submerged sedimentary rocks have undergone severe mechanical weathering. Mechanical weathering in the water-rock interface accelerated chemical weathering, such as dissolution and alteration of the most of minerals except for quartz in the weathering zone. The dissolution of carbonates specially calcite, is remarkable creating the cavities, whereas formation of minerals including clay minerals is not active. The sedimentary rocks have been periodically submerged for a certain period of time, and have repeated freezing and thawing. This mechanical weathering favored infiltration, which accelerated mineral dissolution. The high content of easily soluble carbonate of the sedimentary rocks is likely the major cause of intense chemical weathering. The dissolved elements within the infiltrated water interrupted the occurrence of clay and weathering minerals, and expend fractures by infiltrated water accelerated weathering process.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.36 no.9
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• pp.45-55
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• 2020

X-ray computed tomography (CT) is very useful for the quantitative evaluation of internal structures, particularly defects in rock samples, such as pores and fractures. In situ CT allows 3D imaging of a sample subjected to various external treatments such as loading and therefore enables observation of changes that occur during the loading process. We reviewed state-of-the-art of in situ CT applications for geomaterials. Two triaxial cells made using relatively low density but high strength materials were developed aimed at in situ CT scanning during hydro-mechanical laboratory testing of rocks. Preliminary results for in situ CT imaging of granite and sandstone samples with diameters ranging from 25 mm to 50 mm show a resolution range of 34~105 ㎛ per pixel pitch, indicating the feasibility of in situ CT observations for internal structural changes in rocks at the micrometer scale. Potassium iodide solution was found to improve the image contrast, and can be used as an injection fluid for hydro-mechanical testing combined with in situ CT scanning.

• The Journal of the Petrological Society of Korea
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• v.8 no.1
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• pp.24-33
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• 1999

Differential Strain Analysis (DSA) was performed to examine the characteristics of microcracks for the granites from two sites, Noeunri and Gunggiri. The results of the DSA are taken every 5 MPa for the first 50 MPa, then every 10 MPa to a pressure of 100 MPa, and then every 15 MPa to a pressure of 250 MPa. Differential strain was measured on core samples in three horizontal directions, using $45^{\circ}$ rosette strain gages, and one vertical direction. The gradients of cumulative crack strain curves in one vertical direction and three horizontal directions differed from one another, indicating anisotropic crack development in the sample. The magnitude of vertical cumulative crack strain was the highest, indicating that the microcracks from the studied rock are generally developed in horizontal direction. Under the pressure of 240 Mpa, vertical cumulative crack strains for samples N-1, N-2, G-1, and G-2 were $74{\times}l0^{-6}~820{\times}l0^{-6},\; 190{\times}l0^{-6}~460{\times}l0^{-6},\; 329{\times}l0^{-6}~836{\times}l0^{-6},\; 833{\times}10^{-6}~1,592{\times}l0^{-6}$, respectively. Under the pressure of 25O MPa, volumetric crack strains for Gunggiri and Noeunri ranged from $1,804{\times}10^{-6}\; to\; 3,936{\times}10^{-6}\; and \;from,\; 1, 125{\times}10^{-6}\; to\; 1,457{\times}10^{-6}$, respectively. Therefore, the amount of microcrackes produced were more distributed in Gunggiri than Noeunri. The ratio of a maximum crack strain to a minimum crack strain was calculated to find the orientations between microcracks and the rift plane of the granites. Generally, the ratio has very high values ranging from 2.42 to 3.43, which suggests most microcracks to be intragranular cracks with the regular orientations. These results indicate that the preferred orientations of microcracks in the granites were almost parallel to the rift plane of the granites.

• Journal of Conservation Science
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• v.9 no.1
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• pp.21-32
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• 2000

Rock composition of the Hwangsang-dong Granite Standing Sculptured Buddha (Treasure No. 1122) in the Kumi City is biotite-hornblende granodiorite which consists of about 30 pieces of individual rock blocks of same compositions. However, the cap rocks is pebble-bearing coarse sandstone. Rock blocks of the Standing Buddha and surrounding out crops occur well developed several joint systems of $N25^{\circ}$ to $45^{\circ}W$ strike and nearly vertical (70 to $85^{\circ}SE$) dipping. Rock blocks of the Standing Buddha showed vertical, horizontal and oblique joints, and those blocks are well supported by individual blocks. However, the junction part of the blocks are under dangerous situation due 10 seriously mechanical and chemical weathering. Host rock of the Standing Buddha belongs to the HW grade, therefore mostly rock-forming minerals of the granodiorite Standing Buddha altered with clay and iron hydroxide minerals by mineralogical and chemical weathering. Near surface of the Standing Buddha show spore and mycelium of green algaes, and a joint plane alive with weeds. We suggest that if structural stability for the Standing Buddha remove essentially a unstable rock blocks from the main body, and the main body necessitate supporting by rock bolting method because of repeated unstability and minimizing stress to the rock blocks. For the opened joint planes, fractured surface and alive weeds will attempt to fill in a petro-epoxy, petro-filler and biochemical treatments for the algaes, and ground water curtain and wall seems to be necessary for water flow and diminishing humidity of the Standing Buddha.

• The Journal of the Petrological Society of Korea
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• v.12 no.4
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• pp.196-206
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• 2003

The geochemical and mineralogical investigation on the rocks and repair material comprising of the Sungryemun (The 1st National Treasure) has been made. Rock of the Sungryemun is highly weathered coarse-grained calc-alkali granite. The rock consists mainly of quartz, perthite, plagioclase and biotite with small amounts of orthoclase, muscovite, chlorite and sericite, which are major weathering products from perthite. For obtaining informations about degree of weathering, mineral composition of the original rock calculated by CIPW norm and weathered rock composition determined by XRD quantitative analysis were plotted on a ternary diagram of quartz-potash feldspar-plagioclase. Original rock compositions are plotted on the central granite area. whereas weathered ones are plotted on the granite area close to quartz. The result means that quartz is more abundant in weathered rock, due to selective chemical weathering of potash feldspar and plagioclase over quartz. On the whole, surface of the rocks were black-coated, exfoliated and highly fractured due to the physical and chemical weathering and heavy load has made the cracks in the lower parts of the stone construction. Also, cement and nails, which was used as repair material, during the repair work in the early 1960's, has accelerated the weathering process. Furthermore, weathered conditions of repair materials are very severe. Therefore, it is very urgent to establish of the conservation plan for the Sungryemun.

• Journal of the Mineralogical Society of Korea
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• v.20 no.3
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• pp.165-173
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• 2007

The KAERI Underground Research Tunnel (KURT) located in KAERI (Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute) was recently constructed following the site investigation in 2003. Its dimension is 180 m in length, 6 m in width, and 6 m in height, and it has a horseshoe-like cross-sec-lion and is located in the ground to the depth of 90 m. When the tunnel was dug into the ground with 100 m in length, fresh rocks, weathered rocks and fracture-filling materials were taken and examined by mineralogical and chemical analyses. There are phyllosilicate minerals such as illite, smectite and chlorite including calcite, which are filling some faults and cracks of the KURT rock. The illite and smectite usually coexist in the fracture, where their content ratio is different according to which mineral is predominant. There are high concentrations of U and Th in the rocks coated with iron-oxides and filled with secondary materials as compared with those in the fresh rocks. It seems that the radionuclides, which are slowly leached from the parent rocks or exist as a dissolved form in the groundwater and hydrothermal solution, may have been migrated along the fractures and thereafter selectively sorbed and coprecipitated on the iron-oxides and the fracture-filling materials. These results will be very useful far the evaluation of environmental factors affecting the nuclides migration and retardation when long-term safety is considered to the geological disposal of high-level radioactive wastes in the future.

• Tunnel and Underground Space
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• v.30 no.4
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• pp.404-416
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• 2020

An analytical procedure for calculating the failure load of a V-shaped rock notch under two-dimensional stress conditions was developed based on the slip-line plastic analysis method. The key idea utilized in the development is the fact that the α-line, one of the slip-lines, extends from the rock notch surface to the horizontal surface outside the notch when the rock around the notch is in the plastic state, and that there exists an invariant which is constant along the α-line. Since the stress boundary condition of the horizontal surface outside the rock notch is known, it is possible to calculate the normal and shear stresses acting on the rock notch surface by solving the invariant equation. The notch failure load exerted by the wedge was calculated using the calculated stress components for the notch surface. Rock notch failure analysis was performed by applying the developed analytical procedure. The analysis results show that the failure load of the rock notch increases with exponential nonlinearity as the angle of the notch and the friction of the notch surface increase. The analytical procedure developed in this study is expected to have applications to the study of fracture initiation in rocks through wedge-shaped notch formation, calculation of bearing capacity of the rock foundation, and stability analysis of rock slopes and circular tunnels.

• Journal of Korean Tunnelling and Underground Space Association
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• v.11 no.4
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• pp.327-351
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• 2009

Laboratory tests are performed in this paper to investigate the brittle failure characteristics of over-stressed rocks taken in deep depth. Also, numerical simulation performed using that the so-called CWFS(Cohesion Weakening Frictional Strengthening) model is known to predict brittle failure phenomenon reasonably well. The most typical rock types of Korean peninsula - granite and gneiss - were used for testing. Results of uniaxial compression tests showed that the crack initiation stress was about 41 % to 42% of the uniaxial compressive strength regardless of rock types, where as, the crack damage stress of granite was about 75%, and that of gneiss was about 97%. Through the damage-controlled test, strength parameters of each rock were obtained as a function of damage degree. After the peak, the crack damage stress and the maximum stress were decreased, The cohesion was decreased and the friction angle was increased with increase of rock damage. Before reaching the peak, the elastic modulus was slightly increased, while decreased after the peak. Poisson's ratio was increased as the damage of rock proceeds. Comparison of uniaxial compression tests and damage-controlled tests shows the crack initiation stress estimated from the damage-controlled test fluctuated within the range of crack initiation stress obtained from the uniaxial compression test; the crack damage stress was less than that estimated from the uniaxial compression test. In order to predict the critical depth that brittle failure occurs, numerical simulations using the CWFS model were performed for an example site. Material parameters obtained from the laboratory tests mentioned above were used for CWFS simulation. Comparison between the critical depth predicted from the numerical simulation using the CWFS model and that predicted by using the damage index proposed by Martin et al.(l999), showed that critical depth cannot be reasonably predicted by the currently used damage index except for circular tunnels. A modified damage index was proposed by the author which takes the shape of tunnels other than circular into account.

• Journal of Korean Tunnelling and Underground Space Association
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• v.15 no.3
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• pp.345-356
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• 2013

Numerical simulation on rock cutting by a TBM disc cutter was carried out using SPH (Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics) code. AUTODYN3D, a commercial software program based on finite element method, was used in this study. The three-dimensional geometry of a disc cutter and a rock specimen were modeled by Lagrange and SPH code respectively. The numerical simulation was carried out for Hwangdeung granite for 10 different cutting conditions. The results of the numerical simulation, i.e. the relation between cutter force and failure behavior, had a good agreement with those from LCM test. The cutter forces measured in the numerical simulation had 10% deviation from the LCM test results. Moreover, the optimum cutter spacing was almost identical with the experimental results. These results indicate that SPH code can be successfully used had applicability for simulation on rock cutting by a TBM disc cutter. However, further study on Lagrange-SPH coupled modelling would be necessary to reduce the computation time.