• Tunnel and Underground Space
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• v.12 no.4
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• pp.312-320
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• 2002

It is well-known that when single rock fractures undergo shear displacement, they are influenced by the boundary conditions and fracture roughness. In this case, aperture geometry will change by means of dilation due to the shear displacement. As fractures become the flow paths, fluid flow through rock fractures is affected by the void geometry. In this study, therefore, the influence of roughness on shear behavior of fractures has been investigated, and the resulting hydraulic behavior has been analyzed. In order for this study, a statistical method has been used to generate rough fractures, and they have been adopted into new conceptual models fur fracture shearing and flow calculations. The main contributions of this study are as follows: firstly, fracture shear behavior becomes less brittle with decreasing fracture roughness and increasing normal stress. Then, the characteristics of aperture distribution becomes those of roughness of fractures indicating its hydraulic significance. Finally, it is observed that with decreasing fracture roughness the breakdown of channel flow occurs more slowly.

• Tunnel and Underground Space
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• v.26 no.4
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• pp.283-292
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• 2016

A computer program code was developed to estimate hydraulic behavior of the 2-D connected pipe network system, and implemented to evaluate the effect of joint aperture on hydraulic parameters of fractured rock masses through numerical experiments. A total of 216 stochastic 2-D DFN(discrete fracture network) blocks of $20m{\times}20m$ were prepared using two joint sets with fixed input parameters of joint orientation, frequency and size distribution. Two different cases of joint aperture variation are considered in this study. The hydraulic parameters were estimated for generated 2-D DFN blocks. The hydraulic anisotropy and the chance for equivalent continuum behavior of the DFN system were found to depend on the variability of joint aperture.

• Tunnel and Underground Space
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• v.12 no.4
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• pp.304-311
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• 2002

This study reports the influence of vocid geometry on fracture closure and permeability from numerical experiments. As the aperture distributions of rock fractures are characterized by statistical methods, synthetic fractures have successfully been simulated in this way. Based on the generated fracture models, models for fracture closure and flow calculation have been developed. A fracture closure model has been developed by considering the asperity compression and half-space deformation, and flow calculations have been performed using a finite difference method adopting a local cubic law. The results of numerical experiments have shown that the increase in the aperture spatial correlation leads the fracture closure and the decrease in fracture permeability to increase. Also, it has been indicated that there is an implicit relation between fracture normal stiffness and permeability. The importance of this study is to enhance the understanding the hydro-mechanical behavior of fractured rock massed due to engineering projects.

• Tunnel and Underground Space
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• v.9 no.4
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• pp.328-336
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• 1999

To characterize the hydro-mechanical behavior of a rock joint, a rotary shear testing apparatus was devised in this study. Shear stress was driven by twisting the end of a sample in the rotary shear testing apparatus. The test results show that the rotary shear test underestimates the peak shear strength of a rock joint. The torque is known as a function of the radial distance from the axis of rotation, resulting in the radial variation of the shear stress. Fluid flow through rock joints is mainly dependent on the Joint roughness, contact area, initial aperture. To examine the dependency, the relationship between the hydraulic and the mechanical apertures for shear-flow was established by measuring the initial aperture. It shows that the mechanical aperture and the hydraulic aperture increase linearly with the dilatancy. The difference between the hydraulic and mechanical apertures describes the deviation from the behavior predicted by the parallel plate model.

• Journal of Korea Water Resources Association
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• v.34 no.5
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• pp.449-458
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• 2001

In order to verify the numerical model, which was developed to simulate the behavior of the two-phase fluid flow in a single fracture, the characteristic equation of relative permeability was incorporated into the developed numerical model, and the computed results were compared with the experimental results of the model test. As results of the sensitivity analysis on the roughness and the aperture size of fracture, the gas velocity was inversely proportional to the fracture roughness, and not proportional to the square of aperture size which is usually observed in single phase flow in a single fracture. The numerical model was applied to the underground LPG storage terminal in order to check the field applicability. The simultaneous flow of water and gas in accordance with the operation pressures in a single fracture near cavern was simulated by the model. It was shown that the leaked gas was able to be controlled in a single fracture neither by the pressure of operation nor by that of groundwater in case the fracture became smoother in roughness and smaller in aperture size.

• Tunnel and Underground Space
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• v.24 no.2
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• pp.176-186
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• 2014

Roughness, aperture and filling material of rock joint are widely considered to affect the hydraulic characteristics of joint. Among these factors, in this study, the joint roughness was examined with artificial joint profiles generated by Monte Carlo simulating on the original profiles suggested by Barton and Choubey(1977). Original profiles and revised profiles were combined to establish flow channel models, in which the hydraulic characteristics were analyzed numerically on the basis of minimum aperture changes and flow channel shapes. Maximum flow rate was identified at the growing point of flow area after passing through minimum aperture generated by the two profiles, and it was resulted that maximum flow rate is inversely proportional to minimum aperture. Maximum flow rate per unit area showed different values because flow channel shapes and minimum aperture locations are different in each model. In flow channel, mechanical aperture showed approximately 1.07 ~ 3.00 times larger than hydraulic aperture. In this study, mechanical and hydraulic aperture were concluded to be closely related to $A_i$ value, and their relations can be denoted by $e_m=0.519A^{0.7169_i}$ and $e_h=0.6182A^{0.239}_i$, respectively.

• Tunnel and Underground Space
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• v.10 no.1
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• pp.45-58
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• 2000

Cyclic shear test system, which is capable of measuring flow rate inside rock joint, was established to investigate the hydraulic behavior of rough rock joints under various loading conditions. Laboratory hydraulic tests during compression and shear were conducted for artificial rough rock joints. Prior to tests, aperture characteristics of specimens were examined by measuring surface topography. Permeability changes under compression were well approximated with several hydraulic model. Hydraulic behavior conformed to dilation characteristics in the first stage, and permeability increased with increase of dilation. As the shear displacement progressed, flow rate became somewhat constant due to gouge production and offset of apertures. Hydraulic behavior under cyclic shear loading was also influenced by the degradation of asperities and gouge production. In addition. the relation between hydraulic aperture and mechanical aperture under compression and shear loading was investigated and compared.

• Journal of Korean Tunnelling and Underground Space Association
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• v.15 no.3
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• pp.333-344
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• 2013

This paper discussed about the effect of permeability reduction of the jointed rock mass in the vicinity of a tunnel which is one of the reasons making large difference between the estimated ground-water inflow rate and the measured value. Current practice assumes that the jointed rock mass around a tunnel is a homogeneous, isotropic porous medium with constant permeability. However, in actual condition the permeability of a jointed rock mass varies with the change of effective stress condition around a tunnel, and in turn effective stress condition is affected by the ground water flow in the jointed rock mass around the tunnel. In short time after tunnel excavation, large increase of effective tangential stress around a tunnel due to stress concentration and pore-water pressure drop, and consequently large joint closure followed by significant permeability reduction of jointed rock mass in the vicinity of a tunnel takes place. A significant pore-water pressure drop takes place across this ring zone in the vicinity of a tunnel, and the actual pore-water pressure distribution around a tunnel shows large difference from the value estimated by an analytical solution assuming the jointed rock mass around the tunnel as a homogeneous, isotropic medium. This paper presents the analytical solution estimating pore-water pressure distribution and ground-water inflow rate into a tunnel based on the concept of hydro-mechanically coupled behavior of a jointed rock mass and the solution is verified by numerical analysis.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society for Rock Mechanics Conference
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• 2000.09a
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• pp.117-128
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• 2000

The development of proper joint model, which can describe real phenomena exactly and still can be used easily, is one of the most important element for the analysis of the mechanical and hydraulic behavior of discontinuous rock mass. In this study, an elasto-plastic constitutive model of joint behavior considering asperity degradation was extended with the concept of first and second order asperities. The proposed model was implemented to numerical code with discrete finite joint element. The parametric study with the various asperity angles and degradation coefficients showed that the model can reproduce the shear behavior of typical rough joints well. Results of laboratory monotonic and cyclic shear tests were compared with those of numerical tests to validate the model. The hydraulic model considering the relations between gouge production and aperture was introduced to the mechanical model. In an attempt to examine the performance of the model, comparative numerical test was conducted. Permeability between joint surfaces increased rapidly at the first stage, but became nearly constant with increasing shear displacement due to gouge production and uniform variation of aperture distribution.

• Tunnel and Underground Space
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• v.10 no.3
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• pp.366-377
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• 2000

The development of proper joint model, which can describe real phenomena exactly and still can be used easily, is one of the most important element for the analysis of the mechanical and hydraulic behavior of discontinuous rock mass. In this study, an elasto-plastic constitutive model of joint behavior considering asperity degradation was extended with the concept of first and second order asperities. The proposed model was implemented to numerical code with discrete finite joint element. The parametric study with the various asperity angles and degradation coefficients showed that the model can reproduce the shear behavior of typical rough joints well. Results of laboratory monotonic and cyclic shear tests were compared with those of numerical tests to validate the model. The hydraulic model considering the relations between gouge production and aperture was introduced to the mechanical mode1. In an attempt to examine the performance of the model, comparative numerical test was conducted. Permeability between joint surfaces increased rapidly at the first stage, but became nearly constant with increasing shear displacement due to gouge production and uniform variation of aperture distribution.