• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.31 no.9
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• pp.5-15
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• 2015

In this study, rainfall-induced slope stability and coupling effect are investigated using hydro-mechanical finite element model. This model is developed by formulating constitutive and coupled balance equations and is verified by comparing the numerical results with field matric suction. The homogeneous soil layer (soil column) and soil slope are modeled by this model, and the results of variation in matric suction, mean effective stress, porosity, displacement, factor of safety are compared with those of staggered analysis. It is found that the vertical and horizontal displacement from coupling analysis considering change in porosity is larger than that of staggered analysis. The displacement and matric suction from coupling analysis by rainfall infiltration can affect slope instability, which shows a progressive failure behavior. The lowest factor of safety is observed under short-term rainfall. This results confirm the fact that coupling analysis is needed to design soil slope under severe rain condition.

• Tunnel and Underground Space
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• v.32 no.6
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• pp.518-529
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• 2022

In Task C of the DECOVALEX-2023 project, nine institutes from six nations are developing their numerical codes to simulate thermo-hydro-mechanical coupled behavior for the FE experiment performed at Mont Terri underground rock laboratory, Switzerland. Currently, Step 1 for comparing the simulation results to field data is the ongoing stage, and we used the OGS-FLAC simulator for a series of numerical simulations. As a result, temperature increase depending on the heating hysteresis was well simulated, and saturation variation in the bentonite depending on phase change was observed. However, due to the suction overestimation, relative humidity and temperature change in the bentonite and the pressure variation in the Opalinus clay showed a difference compared to the field data. From the observation, it is confirmed that the effect of the bentonite capillary pressure is dominant to the flow analysis in the disposal system. We further plan to draw improved results considering tunnel support material and accurate initial water pressure distribution. Additionally, the thermal, hydrological, and mechanical anisotropy of the Opalinus clay was well simulated. From the simulation results, we confirmed the applicability of the OGS-FLAC simulator in the disposal system analysis.

• Tunnel and Underground Space
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• v.28 no.5
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• pp.400-425
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• 2018

This study presents the research results and current status of the DECOVALEX-2019 project Task B. Task B named 'Fault slip modelling' is aiming at developing a numerical method to simulate the coupled hydro-mechanical behavior of fault, including slip or reactivation, induced by water injection. The first research step of Task B is a benchmark simulation which is designed for the modelling teams to familiarize themselves with the problem and to set up their own codes to reproduce the hydro-mechanical coupling between the fault hydraulic transmissivity and the mechanically-induced displacement. We reproduced the coupled hydro-mechanical process of fault slip using TOUGH-FLAC simulator. The fluid flow along a fault was modelled with solid elements and governed by Darcy's law with the cubic law in TOUGH2, whereas the mechanical behavior of a single fault was represented by creating interface elements between two separating rock blocks in FLAC3D. A methodology to formulate the hydro-mechanical coupling relations of two different hydraulic aperture models and link the solid element of TOUGH2 and the interface element of FLAC3D was suggested. In addition, we developed a coupling module to update the changes in geometric features (mesh) and hydrological properties of fault caused by water injection at every calculation step for TOUGH-FLAC simulator. Then, the transient responses of the fault, including elastic deformation, reactivation, progressive evolutions of pathway, pressure distribution and water injection rate, to stepwise pressurization were examined during the simulations. The results of the simulations suggest that the developed model can provide a reasonable prediction of the hydro-mechanical behavior related to fault reactivation. The numerical model will be enhanced by continuing collaboration and interaction with other research teams of DECOLVAEX-2019 Task B and validated using the field data from fault activation experiments in a further study.

• Tunnel and Underground Space
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• v.8 no.1
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• pp.17-25
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• 1998

This paper investigates coupled thermal, mechanical and hydraulic phenomena in deep rock mass especially for underground heat storage system. Firstly, concepts of underground heat storage were presented and coupling phenomena in this area were illustrated. In order to understand the basic mechanism of thermal, hydraulic and deformation behavior in rock cavern disturbed by thermal gradient about 10$0^{\circ}C$, various numerical experiments were conducted using several codes. The study involves the behavior of fractured rock mass including rock joint. In spite of the limitation of codes modelling fully coupled effects, these codes could be applied in analysis of underground heat storage. The heat loss in rock mass, which is a major factor in heat storage, is insignificant in all results.

• Journal of Nuclear Fuel Cycle and Waste Technology(JNFCWT)
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• v.4 no.2
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• pp.117-131
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• 2006

A coupled T-H-M(Thermo-Hydro-Mechanical) analysis was carried out for KENTEX (KAERI Engineering-scale T-H-M Experiment for Engineered Barrier System), which is a facility for validating the coupled T-H-M behavior in the engineered barrier system of the Korean reference HLW(high-level waste) disposal system. The changes of temperature, water saturation, and stress were estimated based on the coupled T-H-M analysis, and the influence of the types of mechanical constitutive material laws was investigated by using elastic model, poroelastic model, and poroelastic-plastic model. The analysis was done using ABAQUS, which is a commercial finite element code for general purposes. From the analysis, it was observed that the temperature in the bentonite increased sharply for a couple of days after heating the heater and then slowly increased to a constant value. The temperatures at all locations were nearly at a steady state after about 37.5 days. In the steady state, the temperature was maintained at $90^{\circ}C$ at the interface between the heater and the bentonite and at about $70^{\circ}C$ at the interface between the bentonite and the confining cylinder. The variation of the water saturation with time in bentonite was almost same independent of the material laws used in the coupled T-H-M processes. By comparing the saturation change of T-H-M and that of H-M(Hydro-Mechanical) processes using elastic and poroelastic material mod31 respectively, it was found that the degree of saturation near the heater from T-H-M calculation was higher than that from the coupled H-M calculation mainly because of the thermal flux, which seemed to speed up the saturation. The stresses in three cases with different material laws were increased with time. By comparing the stress change in H-M calculation using poroelasetic and poroelasetic-plastic model, it was possible to conclude that the influence of saturation on the stress change is higher than the influence of temperature. It is, therefore, recommended to use a material law, which can model the elastic-plastic behavior of buffer, since the coupled T-H-M processes in buffer is affected by the variation of void ratio, thermal expansion, as well as swelling pressure.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.29 no.1
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• pp.81-92
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• 2013

This paper presents the results of a numerical investigation into the behavior of retaining wall subject to cycles of freezing and thawing due to seasonal temperature change. The thermo-hydro-mechanical coupled finite element modeling strategy was first established to simulate the wall behavior. A series of finite element analyses were then performed on a range of conditions representing seasonal temperature change characteristics. The results indicated that the average freezing temperature and the number of cycles of freezing and thawing were the primary influencing factors for the wall behavior. Also revealed was that the duration of freezing period does not significantly affect the wall displacement and the lateral earth pressure, and that the earth pressure on the wall does not significantly change due to the freezing and thawing action suggesting that the increase in the wall displacement during the freezing and thawing action may be attributed to degradation of backfill due to the freezing and thawing action.

• Tunnel and Underground Space
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• v.9 no.1
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• pp.1-11
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• 1999

A finite element code was developed to analyze coupled thermo-hydro-mechanical phenomena. This code is based on the finite element formulation provided by Noorishad et al. (1984) and Joint behavior was simulated Goodman's joint constitutive model. The developed code was applied for T-H-M coupling analysis for two kinds of shaft models, with a joint or without a joint respectively. For a model without a joint, temperature increased from the shaft wall to outward evidently. The radial displacement showed opposite directions of outward and inward at some distance from shaft wall. For a model with a joint, closure of joint was found due to thermal expansion. The temperature distribution along a joint showed relatively lower than that of rock matrix because of low thermal conductivity and high specific heat of water. And it could be concluded that effects of thermal flow to joint were more than that of hydraulic flow in a rock mass.

• Tunnel and Underground Space
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• v.29 no.1
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• pp.38-51
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• 2019

Barcelona Basic Model (BBM) can describe not only swelling owing to decrease in effective stress, but also wetting-induced swelling due to decrease in suction. And the BBM can also consider increase in cohesion and apparent preconsolidation stress with suction, and decrease in the apparent preconsolidation stress with temperature. Therefore, the BBM is widely used all over the world to predict and to analyze coupled thermo-hydro-mechanical behavior of bentonite which is considered as buffer materials at the engineered barrier system in the high-level radioactive waste disposal system. However, the BBM is not well known in Korea, so this paper introduce the BBM to Korean rock engineers and geotechnical engineers. In this study, Modified Cam Clay (MCC) model is introduced before all, because the BBM was first developed as an extension of the MCC model to unsaturated soil conditions. Then, the thermo-elasto-plastic version of the BBM is described in detail.

• Tunnel and Underground Space
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• v.23 no.5
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• pp.372-382
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• 2013

Thermal-hydro-mechanical (THM) modeling is a critical R&D issue in the performance and safety assessment of a high-level waste repository. With an $\ddot{A}$sp$\ddot{o}$ prototype repository, its thermal behavior was analyzed and then compared with in-situ experimental data for its validation. A model simulation was used to calculate the temperature distributions in the deposition holes, deposition tunnel, and surrounding host rock. A comparison of the simulation results with the experimental data was made for deposition hole DH-6, which showed that there was a temperature difference of $2{\sim}5^{\circ}C$ depending on the location of the measuring points, but there was a similar trend in the evolution curves of temperature as a function of time. It was expected that the coupled modeling of the thermal behavior with the hydro-mechanical behavior in the buffer and backfill of the $\ddot{A}$sp$\ddot{o}$ prototype repository would give a better agreement between the experimental and model calculation results.

• Journal of Korean Tunnelling and Underground Space Association
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• v.11 no.2
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• pp.141-150
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• 2009

When constructing a subsea tunnel in discontinuous rock mass, fluid flow in joints has a great influence on the behavior of the tunnel so that hydro-mechanical coupled analysis should be performed for the stability estimation. In practice, relaxed rock load is generally used for the design of tunnel concrete lining. In a continuum analysis, a method based on the distribution of local safety factor around a tunnel was proposed for the estimation of a potential relaxed zone. However, in the case of discontinuous rock mass in which joints are developed, the whole stability of tunnels depends on the behavior of the joints. In this study, therefore, a method is proposed for the estimation of a potential relaxed zone occurred by the excavation of a tunnel in discontinuous rock mass. The suggested method is validated by sensitivity analysis and the comparison with the results of continuum analysis.