• Journal of Korean Tunnelling and Underground Space Association
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• v.14 no.3
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• pp.231-246
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• 2012

Recently, the construction of tunnel frequently involves neighboring weak ground conditions. In this case, the stabilized ground could be relaxed by the excavation of tunnel. This will create issues in terms of stability of tunnel. Major factors determining the stability of tunnel can be the direction (angle) of weak zone, the distance between tunnel and boundary of weak zone and so on. In this study, by quantifying the displacement and crack propagation during the excavation of tunnel constructed neighboring weak zone, the influence of the direction of weak zone and the distance between tunnel and boundary of weak zone on the mechanical behavior of tunnel is investigated. A series of experimental scaled model tests by changing the direction of weak zone and the distance between tunnel and boundary of weak zone, are performed and analyzed under the condition of homogeneous material. The results show that as the angle between ground surface and boundary of weak zone moves from horizontal to perpendicular plane, displacement near tunnel increases. An increased distance between tunnel and boundary of weak zone induces displacements near tunnel to decrease and stabilizes beyond a certain level of distance. These findings verify and extend the earlier studies quantitatively. Finally, an appropriate distance between tunnel and boundary of weak zone according to the angle of weak zone is justified. This fundamental insight provides the basis for a more rational design of tunnel neighboring weak ground conditions.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.11 no.2
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• pp.253-267
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• 2016

The stability of surrounding rock will be poor when the tunnel is excavated through nearly horizontal stratum. In this paper, the instability mechanism of local nearly horizontal stratum in super-large section and deep buried tunnel is revealed by the analysis of the macro failure and micro fracture. A structural model is proposed to explain the mechanics of surrounding rock collapse under the action of stress redistribution and shed light on the macroscopic analytical approach of the stability of surrounding rock. Then, some highly effective formulas applied in the tunnel engineering are developed according to the theory of mixed-mode micro fracture. And well-documented field case is made to demonstrate the effectiveness and accuracy of the proposed analytical methods of mixed-mode fracture. Meanwhile, in order to make the more accurate judgment about yield failure of rock mass, a series of comprehensive failure criteria are formed. In addition, the relationship between the nonlinear failure criterion and $K_I$ and $K_{II}$ of micro fracture is established to make the surrounding rock failure criterion more comprehensive and accurate. Further, the influence of the parameters related to the tension-shear mixed-mode fracture and compression-shear mixed-mode fracture on the propagation of rock crack is analyzed. Results show that ${\sigma}_3$ changes linearly with the change of ${\sigma}_1$. And the change rate is related to ${\beta}$, angle between the cracks and ${\sigma}_1$. The proposed simple analytical approach is economical and efficient, and suitable for the analysis of local nearly horizontal stratum in super-large section and deep buried tunnel.

• Journal of the Korean GEO-environmental Society
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• v.15 no.12
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• pp.43-51
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• 2014

Organic matter in dredged soil has a lot of engineering problem in ground including a large settlement, crack propagation, low bearing capacity and low friction angle. From an agricultural point of view, however, organic matter contributes greatly soil quality and plant health. This paper investigated the relationship between engineering and germination characteristics of stabilized mixture consisting of different ratios of organic content (0 %, 10 %, 20 %, 30 %) for recycling dredged soil including organic matter. Several series of laboratory tests such as flow test, unconfined compressive test and consolidation test were performed to find out engineering characteristics. pH, percent of germination and growth of plants were also measured to investigate the germination characteristics. The experimental results indicated that, as organic content increased, unconfined compressive stress decreased and compression and swelling indices increased. However, percent of germination and plant growth increases as organic content increases.

• Advances in concrete construction
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• v.13 no.1
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• pp.83-99
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• 2022

The two, NBD and SCB tests using gypsum circular discs each containing a single notch have been experimentally accomplished in a rock mechanics laboratory. These specimens have also been numerically modelled by a two-dimensional particle flow which is based on Discrete Element Method (DEM). Each testing specimen had a thickness of 5 cm with 10 cm in diameter. The specimens' lengths varied as 2, 3, and 4 cm; and the specimens' notch angles varied as 0°, 45° and 90°. Similar semi-circular gypsum specimens were also prepared each contained one edge notch with angles 0° or 45°. The uniaxial testing machine was used to perform the experimental tests for both NBD and SCB gypsum specimens. At the same time, the numerical simulation of these tests were performed by PFC2D. The experimental results showed that the failure mechanism of rocks is mainly affected by the orientations of joints with respect to the loading directions. The failure mechanism and fracturing patterns of the gypsum specimens are directly related to the final failure loading. It has been shown that the number of induced tensile cracks showing the specimens' tensile behavior, and increases by decreasing the length and angle of joints. It should be noted that the fracture toughness of rocks' specimens obtained by NBD tests was higher than that of the SCB tests. The fracture toughness of rocks usually increases with the increasing of joints' angles but increasing the joints' lengths do not change the fracture toughness. The numerical solutions and the experimental results for both NDB and SCB tests give nearly similar fracture patterns during the loading process.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.83 no.4
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• pp.415-433
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• 2022

Eighteen (18) (120×300×2200 mm) beams were prepared and tested to evaluate the shear strength of Glass Fiber Reinforced Concrete (GFRC) beams with no shear reinforcement, and evaluate the effectiveness of various innovative strengthening systems to increase the shear capacity of the GFRC beams. The test variables are the amount of discrete glass fiber (0.0, 0.6, and 1.2% by volume of concrete) and the type of longitudinal reinforcement bars (steel or GFRP), the strengthening systems (externally bonded (EB) sheet, side near-surface mounted (SNSM) bars, or the two together), strengthening material (GFRP or steel) links, different configurations of NSM GFRP bars (side bonded links, full wrapped stirrups, side C-shaped stirrups, and side bent bars), link spacing, link inclination angle, and the number of bent bars. The experimental results showed that adding the discrete glass fiber to the concrete by 0.6%, and 1.2% enhanced the shear strength by 18.5% and 28%, respectively in addition to enhancing the ductility. The results testified the efficiency of different strengthening systems, where it is enhanced the shear capacity by a ratio of 28.4% to 120%, and that is a significant improvement. Providing SNSM bent bars with strips as a new strengthening technique exhibited better shear performance in terms of crack propagation, and improved shear capacity and ductility compared to other strengthening techniques. Based on the experimental shear behavior, an analytical study, which allows the estimation of the shear capacity of the strengthened beams, was proposed, the results of the experimental and analytical study were comparable by a ratio of 0.91 to 1.15.

• Tunnel and Underground Space
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• v.21 no.3
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• pp.151-163
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• 2011

The LCM test is one of the most powerful and reliable methods for designing the disc cutter and for predicting the TBM (Tunnel Boring Machine) performance. It has an advantage to predict the actual load on disc cutter from the laboratory test on the real-size large rock samples, however, it also has a disadvantage to transport and/or prepare the large rock samples and to need an extra cost for experiment. Moreover it is not easy to execute the test for jointed rock mass, and sometimes the design model estimated from the test can not be applied to the real design of disc cutter. In order to break this critical point, lots of numerical studies have been performed. PFC2D can simulate crack propagation and rock fragmentation effectively, because it is useful in particle flow analysis. Consequently, in this study, the PFC2D has been adopted for numerical analysis on cutting power of disc cutter according to the different angle of joint, the different direction of joint, and the different space of joint with jointed rock mass models. From the numerical analyses, it was concluded that the bigger cutting power of disc cutter was needed for reverse cutting direction to joint rather than for forward direction, and the cutting power of disc cutter was increased with decreasing the dip angle of joint and decreasing the space of joints in reverse cutting direction. The more precise numerical model for disc cutter can be developed from comparison between the numerical results and LCM test results, and the resonable guideline is expected for prediction of TBM performance and disc cutter.