• The Journal of Engineering Geology
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• v.18 no.4
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• pp.371-379
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• 2008

In this study, seismic elastic wave and dynamic elastic modulus properties are investigated by down-hole seismic tests that were applied to the 11 gneiss area. The research results show that the realtionship between the two properties are $V_s=0.5589{\times}V_p$ in gneiss. The relationship between the two properties are separated into two groups. Group 1 is influenced mainly by the specific gravity of rock, but group 2 is influenced mainly by the joint aperture. As weathering progresses, group 1 clearly shows a decreasing tendency. In fresh and slightly weathered rock-mass, correlations between $V_p$ and dynamic elastic modulus is expressed in linear line but in moderately-highly weathered rock-mass, correlations between $V_p$ and dynamic elastic modulus is expressed curve as a quadratic function. Correlations between $V_s$ and dynamic elastic modulus are analyzed similar with a $V_p$ case.

• Tunnel and Underground Space
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• v.13 no.1
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• pp.52-63
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• 2003

Discontinuities such as faults, fractures and joints in rock mass play the dominant role in the mechanical and hydraulic properties of the rock mass. The key factors that influence on the flow of groundwater are hydraulic and geometric characteristics of discontinuities and their connectivity. In this study, a program that analyzes groundwater flow in the 3D discontinuity network was developed on the assumption that the discontinuity characteristics such as density, trace length, orientation and aperture have particular distribution functions. This program generates discontinuities in a three-dimensional space and analyzes their connectivity and groundwater flow. Due to the limited computing capacity In this study, REV was not exactly determined, but it was inferred to be greater than 25$\times$25$\times$25 ㎥. By calculating the extent of aperture that influences on the groundwater flow, it was found that the discontinuities with the aperture smaller than 30% of the mean aperture had little influence on the groundwater flow. In addition, there was little difference in the equivalent hydraulic conductivity for the the two cases when considering and not considering the boundary effect. It was because the groundwater flow was mostly influenced by the discontinuities with large aperture. Among the parameters considered in this study, the length, aperture, and orientation of discontinuities had the greatest influence on the equivalent hydraulic conductivity of rock mass in their order. In case of existence of a fault in rock mass, elements of the equivalent hydraulic conductivity tensor parallel to the fault fairly increased in their magnitude but those perpendicular to the fault were increased in a very small amount at the first stage and then converged.

• Economic and Environmental Geology
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• v.52 no.3
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• pp.231-241
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• 2019

Kinematic analysis determines the stability of rock slope by analyzing the relationship between the slope face orientation and the discontinuity orientation. In this study, terrestrial LiDAR was used to obtain a large amount of discontinuity orientation data and then, the probabilistic characteristics of the orientation data obtained using terrestrial LiDAR were analyzed. Subsequently, the probabilistic kinematic analysis was carried out using the discontinuity orientations generated randomly from Fisher function in Monte Carlo simulation. In addition, the probabilistic kinematic analysis was also performed using the actual orientation data obtained from the terrestrial LiDAR to compare their results. Consequently, the results of both probabilistic analyses showed similar results. Therefore, if sufficient orientation data are provided by other means such as terrestrial LiDAR, the probabilistic analysis will show reasonable results using the actual field data without randomly generating orientation data. In addition, the deterministic kinematic analysis was also carried out using representative orientation of discontinuity sets. The analysis result of the probabilistic analysis showed similar results with the deterministic analysis because the dispersion of the discontinuity orientations in a joint set is not large.

• The Journal of Engineering Geology
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• v.4 no.3
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• pp.269-281
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• 1994

Microscopic study and X-ray diffraction analysis were carried out to find out rock type, tock forming minerals; and weathering characteristics of rocks at the constructing site of the churyong Tunnel, Kyongju-Gun, Kyongbuk. Seismic velocity and compressional strength were measured to evaluate mechanical properties of rock. The rock of the study area is Jurassic tuff consisting of clay minerals, crystals of quartz and feldspar, fragments of volcanic rocks and shale. Fresh tuff has compressional strength of about $443kg/\textrm{cm}^2$ and seismic velocity of about 3680m/sec in average. It is classified as soft rock. Rock fragment within tuff is andesite and it has compressional strength of about $2500kg/\textrm{cm}^2$ and seismic velocity of about 4340m/sec in average. It is classified as hard rock. A good linear relationship is found between compressional streangth and seismic velocity in both laboratory sample and in-situ rocks. Laboratory samples has seismic velocities faster about 1.5km/sec than those in-situ rocks. It is interpreted that joints, fractures, and water content in the in-situ rocks result in decreas of seismic velocity. As Tuff has more than 50% of clay minerals in matrix and shale fragments, it absorbs water easily in atmospheric condition. Therefore, though the rock in the study area is medium hard rock before weathering, it is weathered very easily in the case of exposure to natural environment, comparing with other rock.

• Tunnel and Underground Space
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• v.14 no.3
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• pp.167-174
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• 2004

This paper is to introduce an article published in Rock Mechanics and Rock Engineering, 2003. In this research, a fracture mechanics model is developed to illustrate the importance of time-dependence far brittle fractured rock. In particular a model is developed fer the time-dependent degradation of rock joint cohesion. Degradation of joint cohesion is modeled as the time-dependent breaking of intact patches or rock bridges along the joint surface. A fracture mechanics model is developed utilizing subcritical crack growth, which results in a closed-form solution for joint cohesion as a function of time. As an example, a rock block containing rock bridges subjected to plane sliding is analyzed. The cohesion is found to continually decrease, at first slowly and then more rapidly. At a particular value of time the cohesion reduces to value that results in slope instability. A second example is given where variations in some of the material parameters are assumed. A probabilistic slope analysis is conducted, and the probability of failure as a function of time is predicted. The probability of failure is found to increase with time, from an initial value of 5% to a value at 100 years of over 40%. These examples show the importance of being able to predict the time-dependent behavior of a rock mass containing discontinuities, even for relatively short-term rock structures.

• Journal of Korean Tunnelling and Underground Space Association
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• v.14 no.1
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• pp.23-35
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• 2012

Due to the convenience, RMR has been widely applied in civil engineering works such as tunnel, slope, and so on. Many researchers have studied to suggest more simple and trustable RMR by modifying its parameters. However, those researches have just focused on looking for easy modified-RMRs by reducing number of parameters using various statistical analyses. Therefore, this research studied questions of modified-RMRs and gaps between RMR and its parameters. Approximately 2,000 parameters of 400 RMRs from various tunnel sites were normalized respectively and compared with one another to study their relations and divergences. The comparison results showed that there were common patterns among RMR and parameters. Data of uniaxial compressive strength and RQD, qualitative parameters, were located in upper side of RMR line. Discontinuity condition and ground water, quantitative oriented parameters, were opposite to them. It means if both qualitative and quantitative parameters can be properly combined then it can be easy to make simple and easy modified-RMRs without using difficult statistics. This results also show that the majority of field engineers used to estimate RMR conservatively when they did quantitative oriented parameters.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.19 no.6
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• pp.151-160
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• 2003

The stability of the designed rock slope is analysed based on two kinds of shear strength model. Besides the deterministic analysis, a probabilistic approach on Monte Carlo simulation is proposed to deal with the uncertain characteristics of the discontinuity and the results obtained from two models are compared to each other. To carry out the research of characteristics of the discontinuity, BIPS, DOM Scanline survey data and direct shear test data are used, and chi-square test is used for determining the probability distribution function. The rock slope is evaluated to be stable in the deterministic analysis, but in the probabilistic analysis, the probability of failure is more than 5%, so, it is considered that the rock slope is unstable. In the shear strength models, the probability of the failure based on the Mohr-Coulomb model(linear model) is higher than that of the Barton model. It is supported by the fact that the Mohr-Coulomb model is more sensitive to block size than the Barton model. In fact, there is no reliable way to estimate the unit cohesion of the Mohr-Coulomb model except f3r back analysis and in the case of small block failure in the slope, Mohr-Coulomb model may excessively evaluate the factor of the safety. So, the Barton model of which parameters are easily acquired using the geological survey is more reasonable for the stability of the studied slope. Also, the selection of the proper shear strength model is an important factor for slope failure analysis.

• Tunnel and Underground Space
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• v.27 no.5
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• pp.303-311
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• 2017

The correlation analysis between the results obtained from DFN flow model and equivalent continuum flow model were conducted on total of 72 DFN blocks having various fracture geometry and domain size. A strong linear relation seems to exist between the two approaches under condition that normalized relative error for continuum behavior (ER) is less than 0.2, and the results from both methods are found to almost identical. To explore the field applicability of equivalent continuum flow model in DFN media, a total of 48 numerical schemes related to inflow of underground circular openings were implemented under various DFN configurations. The equivalent continuum flow model in DFN media with a constant hydraulic aperture was evaluated as valid. However, as the anisotropy increases due to variation of the hydraulic aperture, the results are likely to be overestimated compare to the DFN flow model.

• Tunnel and Underground Space
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• v.24 no.4
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• pp.282-288
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• 2014

Stoping method has been acknowledged as one of the typical metalliferous underground mining methods. Notwithstanding with the popularity of the method, the majority of stoping mines are suffering from excessive unplanned dilution which often becomes as the main cause of mine closure. Thus a reliable unplanned dilution management system is imperatively needed. In this study, reliable unplanned dilution prediction system is introduced by adopting artificial neural network (ANN) based on data investigated from one underground stoping mine in Western Australia. In addition, contributions of input parameters were analysed by connection weight algorithm (CWA). To validate the reliability of the proposed ANN, correlation coefficient (R) was calculated in the training and test stage which shown relatively high correlation of 0.9641 in training and 0.7933 in test stage. As results of CWA application, BHL (Length of blast hole) and SFJ (Safety factor of Joint orientation) show comparatively high contribution of 18.78% and 19.77% which imply that these are somewhat critical influential parameter of unplanned dilution.

• Explosives and Blasting
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• v.33 no.2
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• pp.15-24
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• 2015

In general, blast vibrations could make underground cavern unstable by causing relative movements between the surrounding rock blocks that are divided by discontinuities such as joints and faults around the cavern. In the study, a blast guideline was established to obtain the stability of a large-scale cavern for underground crusher room in an open pit limestone mine in Korea. The guideline was suggested in the form of a standard calculation method of the maximum charge per delay for a safe blast. The allowable level of peak particle velocity for the cavern was determined based on the result of a numerical analysis using FLAC2D. The ground vibration data required for the study was obtained from field measurements.