• Tunnel and Underground Space
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• v.19 no.6
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• pp.567-582
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• 2009

The world's largest nucleon decay experiment facility is constructed at a depth of approximately 1,000meters, in the Kamioka mine, Japan. Because of the character as a large cavern in deep underground, in-situ stress measurements were conducted to provide basic information for design of the cavern. Three overcoring methods were used: 8-element embedding gauges developed by Japanese Central Research Institute of Electric Power Industry, hemispherical ended borehole technique with eight strain cross-gauges, and Hollow Inclusion Cell with 12 strain gauges. The principle stresses were not perfectly similar in each measurement. The average values of the 6 stress element were used to provide the direction and the magnitude of three principle stress.

• Tunnel and Underground Space
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• v.16 no.1 s.60
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• pp.11-25
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• 2006

The world's largest nucleon decay experiment facility is constructed at a depth of approximately 1,000 meters, in the Kamio Mine, Japan. The excavated cavern is consisted of a cylinder of 42.4 m high and a semi elliptical dome of 15.2 m high, with a bottom diameter of 40 m. The total excavation volume is approximately $69,000\;m^3$. Because of the character as a large cavern excavation in deep underground, there is many unknown factors in rock mechanics. Based on the results of rock test and numerical analysis, the monitoring of rock mass behavior accompanying progress of construction was performed by various instruments installed in the rock mass surrounding the cavern. The monitoring data was used in the study of measures for cavern stability.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.16 no.4
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• pp.399-413
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• 2018

This paper addresses the issue of field measurement of excavation damage zone (EDZ) and its numerical simulation method considering both excavation unloading and blasting load effects. Firstly, a 2000 m-deep rock cavern in China is focused. A detailed analysis is conducted on the field measurement data regarding the mechanical response of rock masses subjected to excavation and blasting operation. The extent of EDZ is revealed 3.6 m-4.0 m, accounting for 28.6% of the cavern span, so it is significantly larger than rock caverns at conventional overburden depth. The rock mass mechanical response subjected to excavation and blasting is time-independent. Afterwards, based on findings of the field measurement data, a numerical evaluation method for EDZ determination considering both excavation unloading and blasting load effects is presented. The basic idea and general procedures are illustrated. It features a calibration operation of damage constant, which is defined in an elasto-plastic damage constitutive model, and a regression process of blasting load using field blasting vibration monitoring data. The numerical simulation results are basically consistent with the field measurement results. Further, some issues regarding the blasting loads, applicability of proposed numerical method, and some other factors are discussed. In conclusion, the field measurement data collected from the 2000 m-deep rock cavern and the corresponding findings will broaden the understanding of tunnel behavior subjected to excavation and blasting at great depth. Meanwhile, the presented numerical simulation method for EDZ determination considering both excavation unloading and blasting load effects can be used to evaluate rock caverns with similar characteristics.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.53 no.3
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• pp.481-495
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• 2015

Many hydropower stations in southwest China are located in regions of brittle rock mass with high geo-stresses. Under these conditions deep fractured zones often occur in the sidewalls of the underground caverns of a power station. The theory and methods of fracture and damage mechanics are therefore adopted to study the phenomena. First a flexibility matrix is developed to describe initial geometric imperfections of a jointed rock mass. This model takes into account the area and orientation of the fractured surfaces of multiple joint sets, as well as spacing and density of joints. Using the assumption of the equivalent strain principle, a damage constitutive model is established based on the brittle fracture criterion. In addition the theory of fracture mechanics is applied to analyze the occurrence of secondary cracks during a cavern excavation. The failure criterion, for rock bridge coalescence and the damage evolution equation, has been derived and a new sub-program integrated into the FLAC-3D software. The model has then been applied to the stability analysis of an underground cavern group of a hydropower station in Sichuan province, China. The results of this method are compared with those obtained by using a conventional elasto-plastic model and splitting depth calculated by the splitting failure criterion proposed in a previous study. The results are also compared with the depth of the relaxation and fracture zone in the surrounding rock measured by field monitoring. The distribution of the splitting zone obtained both by the proposed model and by the field monitoring measurements are consistent to the validity of the theory developed herein.

• The Journal of Engineering Geology
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• v.14 no.1
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• pp.93-104
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• 2004

This paper intended to assess the hydro-structure characteristics of volcanic rocks based on the hydrogeological data obtained from the underground storage cavern during construction. The variation of groundwater levels was periodically measured from the 28 surface monitoring holes(NX size) and the hydraulic pressures and injection rates were daily monitored from the water curtain holes(95 horizontal holes and 63 vertical holes). The hydraulic interference tests were performed in whole water curtain holes. The distribution patterns of hydraulic pressure are closely related to the dip angles of fracture intersected to the water curtain holes. Three domains can be grouped by the distribution of hydraulic pressures in the horizontal water curtain holes. The initial hydraulic pressures measured immediately after drilling of water crutain holes are high in ascending order of the cavern C-2, C-1, and C-3. The priliminary hydrochemical data also indicate that the portions of the deep groundwater composition is relatively great in the cavern C-3 area. Some of the horizontal water curtain holes in the cavern C-3 show a steady higher groundwater pressure with the composition of shallow groundwater indicating the outer boundary as constant hydraulic boundary. The water curtain holes in the cavern C-2 is characterized as low initial hydraulic pressure and less injection rates, suggesting poor hydraulic connectivity to a shallow groundwater system. The results of the study can help to understand a hydraulic compartment concept in a fracture hydro-geology and be utilized during the surface investigation for a groundwater system.

• Tunnel and Underground Space
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• v.7 no.1
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• pp.39-50
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• 1997

Reference concepts for the disposal of spent nuclear fuel and the current status of underground rock laboratory were studied. An analysis to simulate the deep disposal of spent nuclear fuel in saturated rock mass was conducted. Main input parameters for numerical study were determined based on the KBS-3 concept. A series of results showed that the temperature distribution around a cavern reached the maximum value at about 10 years after the emplacement of spent fuel. The maximum temperature at the surface of canister was more than about 12$0^{\circ}C$ at about 4 years. This temperature was not much higher than the temperature criteria to meet the performance criteria of an artificial barrier in the KBS-3 concept. The maximum upward displacement due to the heat generation of spent fuel was about 0.9cm at about 10 years after the emplacement of spent fuel. It turned out that the vertical displacement became smaller with the decrease in heat generation of a canister. The quantity of groundwater inflow into a disposal tunnel increased by about 1.6 times at 20 years after the emplacement of spent fuel with the increase of pore pressure around a cavern.

• 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.

• Proceedings of the Korean Geotechical Society Conference
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• 2002.10a
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• pp.287-294
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• 2002

CAES which is called as a compressed air energy storage was firstly developed at Huntorf, German in 1978. The capacity of that system was 290MW, and it can be treated as a first commercial power plant. CAES has a lot of merits, such as saving the unit price of power generation, averaging the peak demand, improvement of maintenance, enlarging the benefit of dynamic use. According to the literature survey, the unlined rock cavern should be proposed to be a reasonable storing style as a method of compressed air storage in Korea. We decided the hill of the Korea Institute of Geoscience and Mineral Resources as CAES site. If we construct the underground spaces in this site, the demand for electricity nearby Taejon should be considered. So we could determine the capacity of the power plant as a 350MW, This capacity needs a underground space of 200,000㎥, and we can conclude 4 parallel tunnels 550m deep from the surface through the numerical studies, Design parameters were achieved from 300m depth boring job and image processing job.

• Tunnel and Underground Space
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• v.32 no.2
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• pp.107-119
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• 2022

Excavation-Disturbed Zone (EDZ) is an important design factor in constructing final disposal facilities for spent nuclear fuel, since EDZ affects mechanical stability including a spacing between disposal holes, and the hydraulic properties within EDZ plays a significant role in estimating in-flow rate of groundwater as well as a subsequent corrosion rate of a canister. Thus, it is highly required to characterize in-situ EDZ with precision and control the EDZ occurrence while excavating disposal facilities and constructing relevant underground research facilities. In this report, we not only reviewed EDZ-related researches carried out in the ONKALO facility of Finland but also examined appropriate methods for field inspection and quality control of EDZ occurrence. From the review, GPR can be the most efficient method for in-situ characterization of EDZ since it does not demand drilling a borehole that may disturb a surrounding environment of caverns. And the EDZ occurrence was dominant at a cavern floor and it ranged from 0 to 70 cm. These can provide useful information in developing necessary EDZ-related regulations for domestic disposal facilities.