• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.76 no.2
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• pp.269-278
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• 2020

In this paper, the mechanical characteristics of the open type hyperbolic-parabolic membrane structure under wind load were investigated. First, the numerical simulation of a typical plane membrane structure was performed based on the Large-Eddy Simulation method. The accuracy of the simulation method was validated by the corresponding wind tunnel test results. Then, the wind load shape coefficients of open type hyperbolic-parabolic membrane structures are obtained from the series of numerical calculations and compared with the recommended values in the "Technical Specification for Membrane Structures (CECS 158: 2015). Finally, the influences of the wind directions and wind speeds on the mean wind pressure distribution of open type hyperbolic-parabolic membrane structures were investigated. This study aims to gain a better understanding of the wind-induced response for this type of structure and be useful to engineers and researchers.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.20 no.5
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• pp.461-474
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• 2020

Analysing the incompatible deformation and damage evolution around the tunnels in mixed strata is significant for evaluating the tunnel stability, as well as the interaction between the support system and the surrounding rock mass. To investigate this issue, confined compression tests were conducted on upper-soft and lower-hard strata specimens containing a circular hole using a rock testing system, the physical mechanical properties were then investigated. Then, the incompatible deformation and failure modes of the specimens were analysed based on the digital speckle correlation method (DSCM) and Acoustic Emission (AE) data. Finally, numerical simulations were conducted to explore the damage evolution of the mixed strata. The results indicate that at low inclination angles, the deformation and v-shaped notches inside the hole are controlled by the structure plane. Progressive spalling failure occurs at the sidewalls along the structure plane in soft rock. But the transmission of the loading force between the soft rock and hard rock are different in local. At high inclination angles, v-shaped notches are approximately perpendicular to the structure plane, and the soft and hard rock bear common loads. Incompatible deformation between the soft rock and hard rock controls the failure process. At inclination angles of 0°, 30° and 90°, incompatible deformations are closely related to rock damage. At 60°, incompatible deformations and rock damage are discordant due that the soft rock and hard rock alternately bears the major loads during the failure process. The failure trend and modes of the numerical results agree very well with those observed in the experimental results. As the inclination angles increase, the proportion of the shear or tensile damage exhibits a nonlinear increase or decrease, suggesting that the inclination angle of mixed strata may promote shear damage and restrain tensile damage.

• Tunnel and Underground Space
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• v.29 no.6
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• pp.508-522
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• 2019

Because of the slope failure, not only property damage but also human damage can occur, slope stability analysis should be conducted to predict and reinforce of the slope. This paper, defines the ground areas that can be characterized in terms of slope failure such as Rockmass jointset, Rockmass fault, Soil, Leakage water and Crush zone in sloped images. As a result, it was shown that the deep learning instance segmentation network can be used to recognize and automatically segment the precise shape of the ground region with different characteristics shown in the image. It showed the possibility of supporting the slope mapping work and automatically calculating the ground characteristics information of slopes necessary for decision making such as slope reinforcement.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.21 no.2
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• pp.201-206
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• 2020

A stress-induced brittle failure in deep tunneling generates spalling and slabbing, eventually causing a v-shaped notch formation. An empirical relationship for the depth of the notch to the maximum tangential stress assuming an equivalent circular cross-section was proposed (Martin et al. 1999). While this empirical approach has been well recognized in the industry and used as a design guideline in many projects, its applicability to a non-circular opening is worth revisiting due to the use of equivalent circular profile. Moreover, even though the extent of the notch also contributes to notch failure, it has not been estimated to date. When the estimate of both the depth and the extent of notch are combined, a practical and economically justifiable support design can be achieved. In this study, a new methodology to assess the depth as well as the extent of notch failure is developed. Field data and numerical simulations using the Cohesion Weakening Frictional Strengthening (CWFS) model were collected and correlated with the three most commonly accepted failure criteria (σ₁/σ₃, D_is=σ_max/σ_c, σ_dev/σ_cm). For the numerical analyses, the D-shaped tunnel was used since most civil tunnels are built to this profile. Inferential statistical analysis is applied to predict the failure range with a 95% confidence level. Considering its accuracy and simplicity, the new correlation can be used as an enhanced version of failure assessment.

• Tunnel and Underground Space
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• v.32 no.1
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• pp.1-19
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• 2022

In this report, new standard, published by Japanese Geotechnical Society, on in-situ stress measurements by hydraulic fracturing was reviewed. In the standard, modification was made for the calculation of fracture re-opening pressure in consideration of fracture surface roughness and residual aperture. The standard also presents how much the system compliance influences the estimation of the fracture re-opening pressure and subsequent in-situ stresses. It is shown that the stiffer the rock mass is, the system compliance should be sufficiently small enough so as to obtain in-situ stress measurement with higher confidence.

• Tunnel and Underground Space
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• v.32 no.3
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• pp.219-230
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• 2022

The Geo-Reservoir Experimental Analogue Technology (GREAT) cell was designed to recreate the thermal-hydro-mechanical conditions of deep subsurface in the laboratory. This apparatus can generate a polyaxial stress field using lateral loading elements, which rotate around the longitudinal axis of a sample and is capable of performing a fluid flow test for samples containing fractures. In the present study, numerical simulations were carried out for triaxial compression tests using the GREAT cell and the mechanical behavior of samples under different conditions of lateral loading was investigated. We simulated an actual case, in which triaxial compression tests were conducted for a polymer sample without fractures, and compared the results between the numerical analysis and experiment. The surface strain (circumferential strain) of the sample was analyzed for equal and non-equal horizontal confining pressures. The results of the comparison showed a good consistency. Additionally, for synthetic cases with a fracture, we investigated the effect of the friction and type of fracture surface on the deformation behavior.

• Tunnel and Underground Space
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• v.32 no.6
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• pp.411-434
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• 2022

In deep geological disposal concept for spent nuclear fuel, it is well-known that rock mass at near-field experiences the thermal-hydraulic-mechanical (THM) coupled behavior. The mechanical properties of rock changes during the coupled process, and it is important to consider the changes into the analysis of numerical simulation and in-situ tests for long-term stability evaluation of nuclear waste disposal repository. This report collected the previous studies on indirect coupled behaviors of rock. The effects of water saturation and temperature on some mechanical properties of rock was considered, while the change in hydraulic conductivity of rock due to stress was included in the indirect coupled behavior.

• Tunnel and Underground Space
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• v.30 no.5
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• pp.462-472
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• 2020

Rock classification is fundamental discipline of exploring geological and geotechnical features in a site, which, however, may not be easy works because of high diversity of rock shape and color according to its origin, geological history and so on. With the great success of convolutional neural networks (CNN) in many different image-based classification tasks, there has been increasing interest in taking advantage of CNN to classify geological material. In this study, a feasibility of the deep CNN is investigated for automatically and accurately identifying rock types, focusing on the condition of various shapes and colors even in the same rock type. It can be further developed to a mobile application for assisting geologist in classifying rocks in fieldwork. The structure of CNN model used in this study is based on a deep residual neural network (ResNet), which is an ultra-deep CNN using in object detection and classification. The proposed CNN was trained on 10 typical rock types with an overall accuracy of 84% on the test set. The result demonstrates that the proposed approach is not only able to classify rock type using images, but also represents an improvement as taking highly diverse rock image dataset as input.

• Tunnel and Underground Space
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• v.22 no.6
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• pp.429-437
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• 2012

This study predicted temperature in the disposal tunnels using computational fluid dynamics based on natural ventilation quantity that comes from high altitude and temperature differences that are the characteristics of high level waste repository. The result of the previous study that evaluated quantitatively natural ventilation quantity using a hydrostatic method and CFD shows that significant natural ventilation quantity is generated. From the result, this study performed the prediction of temperature in disposal tunnels by natural ventilation quantity by the caloric values of the wastes, at both deep geological repository and surface repository. The result of analysis shows that deep geological repository is effective for thermal control in the disposal tunnels due to heat transfer to rock and the generation of sufficient natural ventilation quantity, while surface repository was detrimental to thermal control, because surface repository was strongly affected by external temperature, and could not generate sufficient natural ventilation quantity. Moreover, this study found that in the case of deep geological repository with a depth of 200 m, the heatof about $10^{\circ}C$ was transferred to the depth of 500 m. Thus, it is considered that if the high level waste repository scheduled to be built in the country is designed placing an emphasis on thermal control, deep geological repository rather than surface repository is more appropriate.

• Tunnel and Underground Space
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• v.29 no.6
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• pp.439-455
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• 2019

A buffer is the major component of a high level radioactive waste repository. Due to their thermal conductivity and low permeability, bentonites have been considered as a key component of a buffer system in most countries. The deep geological condition generates ground water inflow and results in swelling pressure in the buffer and backfill. Investigation of swelling pressure of bentonite buffer is an important task for the safe disposal system. The swelling pressure that can be critical is affected by mechanical and hydro properties of the system. Therefore, in this study, a sensitivity analysis was conducted to examine the effect of hydro-mechanical (HM) behaviors in the MX-80 bentonite. Based on the results of the swelling pressure generation with HM model parameters, a coupled HM analysis of an unsaturated buffer and backfill in a deep geological repository was also carried out to investigate the major factor of the swelling pressure generation.