• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.25 no.5
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• pp.65-73
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• 2009

Large scale model tests and numerical analyses are performed to investigate the stress distribution of pillar due to surface loading nearby two-arch tunnel which is constructed in the regularly jointed rocks. It is observed that the influence of discontinuities on the stress distribution in the discontinuous rock mass and the underground stresses induced by surface loading are greater than those of linear elastic theory. Especially, lines of equal stresses are developed to the direction of inclination according to the inclined grade. In cases of discontinuities imbedded in parallel with or vertical to the ground, the pressure bulbs are formed symmetrically, however, the inclined ones result in stress distribution in parallel with and vertical to the planes of discontinuities. Results indicated that stress distribution is seriously affected by the angle of discontinuity. When stresses propagating to the pillar need to be estimated, relative location of surface loading, grade of discontinuous plane, and location of two-arch tunnel should be carefully considered.

• Journal of Korean Tunnelling and Underground Space Association
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• v.10 no.1
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• pp.25-36
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• 2008

When constructing subsea underground structures, the influence of high water and seepage pressure acting on the structures can not be neglected. Thus hydro-mechanical coupled analysis should be performed to estimate the behavior of the structures precisely In practice, relaxed rock load is generally used for the design of tunnel concrete lining. A method based on the distribution of local safety factor around a tunnel was proposed for the estimation of a height of relaxed rock mass ($H_{relaxed}$). In this study, the validation of the suggested method is investigated in the framework of hydro-mechanical coupled analyses. It was suggested that inducing inflow by pumping through a drainage well gave more reliable results than inducing inflow with shotcrete hydraulic characteristics in case of rock condition of Class III. In this study, therefore, inducing inflow by pumping through a drainage well are adopted in estimating $H_{relaxed}$ due to a tunnel excavation with the rock condition of Class I, III, and V. Also the estimated $H_{relaxed}$ results are compared with those of the existing suggested methods. As the result of this study, it is confirmed that estimating $H_{relaxed}$ based on the distribution of local safety factor around a tunnel can be effectively used even for the case of hydro-mechanical coupled analysis. It is also found that inducing inflow pumping through a drainage well gives more precise and consistent Hrelaxed of a subsea structure.

• Tunnel and Underground Space
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• v.28 no.1
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• pp.59-71
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• 2018

Since the generalized Hoek-Brown (GHB) function predicts the strength of the jointed rock mass in a systematic manner by use of GSI index, it is widely used in rock engineering practices. In this study, a series of 2D elasto-plastic FE analysis, which adopts the GHB criterion as a yield function, was carried out to investigate the radial convergence characteristics of circular tunnel excavated in the GHB rock mass. The effect of the plastic potential function on the elasto-plastic displacement was also examined. In the analysis, the wide range of both the $K(={\sigma}_h/{\sigma}_v)$ and GSI values are considered. For each K value, the variation of the ratio of sidewall displacement to roof displacement was calculated with varying GSI values and the obtained displacement patterns were analysed. The calculation results show that the displacement ratio significantly depends not only on the K value but also on the range of GSI value. In particular, for lower range of GSI value, the displacement ratio pattern calculated in the elasto-plastic regime is opposite to that predicted by the elasticity theory. In addition, the variation of the radial displacement ratio with GSI value for different types of plastic potential function showed similar trend.

• Journal of the Korean GEO-environmental Society
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• v.16 no.9
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• pp.23-32
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• 2015

This study examined blast testing measurement data which had been obtained from 97 field sites in Korea to investigate the comprehensive characteristics of rock blasting-induced vibration focusing on the effect of excavation types (tunnel, bench) and rock types. The measurement data was from the testing sites mostly in Kangwon province and Kyungsang province and rock types were granite, gneiss, limestone, sand stone, and shale in the order of number of data. The study indicated that the blasting-induced vibration velocity was affected by the excavation types (tunnel, bench) and bench blasting induced higher velocity than tunnel blasting. In addition, the vibration velocity was also highly affected by the rock types and therefore, it can be concluded that rock types should be considered in the future to estimate a blasting-induced vibration velocity. Furthermore, the pre-existing criteria was compared with the results of this study and the comparison indicated that there was a discernable difference except for tunnel blasting results based on the square root scaling and therefore, further studies and interests, which include the effects of rock strength, joint characteristics, geological formation, excavation type, power type, measurement equipment and method, might be necessarily in relation to the estimation of blasting-induced vibration velocity in rock mass.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.19 no.4
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• pp.201-209
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• 2003

For the purpose of research study, a vertical shaft of 98m in length and 3.05m in diameter was constructed in the layer of conglomerate by using the Raise Boring Machine (RBM). In order to estimate the net penetration rate of the RBM, which can be used in the stage of design, the in-situ test results were analysed and correlated to data from the boring log in situ and laboratory testing. Its average net penetration rate is 2.233mm/rev while its average advance rate is 0.382m/hr, which is lower than that of TBM(Tunnel Boving Machine). It turns out that the net penetration rate increases with the increase of strength characteristics in rock mass (e.g., uniaxial compression strength, tensile strength, etc.). Similarly, the net penetration rate increases linearly with the hardness of rock mass. These results are contrary to the results of the previous construction sites where the TBM was generally used in the layer of hard rock. However, the trend obtained in this study is in accordance with the findings of Barton suggesting the relationship between Q$_TBM$ and penetration rate in the layer of soft rock. Thus, the trend is valid in soft and/or weathered rocks.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.34 no.6
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• pp.683-696
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• 2023

The destruction and fracture of rock masses are crucial components in engineering and there is an increasing demand for the study of the influence of rock mass heterogeneity on the safety of engineering projects. The numerical manifold method (NMM) has a unified solution format for continuous and discontinuous problems. In most NMM studies, material homogeneity has been assumed and despite this simplification, fracture mechanics remain complex and simulations are inefficient because of the complicated topology updating operations that are needed after crack propagation. These operations become computationally expensive especially in the cases of heterogeneous materials. In this study, a heterogeneous model algorithm based on stochastic theory was developed and introduced into the NMM. A new fracture algorithm was developed to simulate the rupture zone. The algorithm was validated for the examples of the four-point shear beam and semi-circular bend. Results show that the algorithm can efficiently simulate the rupture zone of heterogeneous rock masses. Heterogeneity has a powerful effect on the macroscopic failure characteristics and uniaxial compressive strength of rock masses. The peak strength of homogeneous material (with heterogeneity or standard deviation of 0) is 2.4 times that of heterogeneous material (with heterogeneity of 11.0). Moreover, the local distribution of parameter values can affect the configuration of rupture zones in rock masses. The local distribution also influences the peak value on the stress-strain curve and the residual strength. The post-peak stress-strain curve envelope from 60 random calculations can be used as an estimate of the strength of engineering rock masses.

• 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.

• Tunnel and Underground Space
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• v.13 no.4
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• pp.294-303
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• 2003

The structural behaviour of rock mass structure, such as tunnel or slope is critically dependent on the various characteristics of discontinuities. Therefore, it is important to survey and analyze discontinuities correctly for the design and construction of rock mass structure. One inevitable Procedure of discontinuity survey and analysis is joint set identification from a lot of raw directional joint data. The identification procedure is generally done by a graphical method. This type of analysis has some shortcomings such as subjective identification results, inability to use extra information on discontinuity, and so on. In this study, a computer program for joint set identification based on the fuzzy clustering algorithm was implemented and tested using two kinds of joint data. It was confirmed that fuzzy clustering method is effective and valid for joint set identification and estimation of mean direction and degree of clustering of huge joint data through the applications.

• Tunnel and Underground Space
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• v.16 no.5 s.64
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• pp.413-421
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• 2006

In order to explain entirely dynamic fracture process induced by blasting in rock mass, it needs to consider detonation pressure and gas pressure acting on blasthole wall simultaneously. In this study, prior to simulating the coupling between gas flow and rock mass, we analyzed effects of gas pressure-time history, length of cracks and equation of state adopted to calculate the gas pressure on the gas flow within a radial fracture created by single-hole blasting. The effects were investigated on two assumptions: (a) the radial fracture was composed of 5 cracks which were 0.01 m in length and 0.001 m in asperity each and (b) the PETN explosive which diameter was 36 mm was charged in a blasthole of 45 mm diameter. It was concluded that the maximum gas pressure and its travel time were dependent on characteristics of charged explosives and geometrical properties of radial fracture.

• The Journal of Engineering Geology
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• v.17 no.1 s.50
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• pp.135-142
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• 2007

Although rock itself has high strength or low permeability, engineering properties of rock masses are significantly influenced by discontinuities such as cracks and joints. Considered with possibility of groundwater flow in massive rock mass of deep subsurface, the connectivity of micro cracks should be analyzed as a conduit of ground-water flow. The objective of this study is to estimate permeability characteristics of granite dependent on damage process with application of joint distribution analysis and modeling of permeability analysis in rock masses. In case of average permeability coefficients, the modeling results based on micro cracks data are well matched with the results from permeability tests. Based on the visualization result of three dimensional model, the average permeability coefficients through the discharge plane have a positive relationship with the number of microcrack induced by rock damage.