• Journal of Industrial Technology
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• v.28 no.B
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• pp.111-116
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• 2008

Since the hydraulic fracturing field testing method was introduced first to Korean geotechnical engineers in 1994, there have been lots of progresses in a hardware system as well as an interpretation tool. The hydrofracturing system of first generation was the pipe-line type, and it has been developed to a wire-line system at their second generation. The current up-to-date system is more compact and is able to be operated by all-in-one system. With a progress in a hardware system, the software for analyzing in-situ stress regime has also been progressed. The shut-in pressure, which is the most ambiguous parameter to be obtained from hydrofracturing pressure curves, can now be acquired automatically from the various methods. While the hardware and software for hydrofracturing tests are being developed during the last decade, the author could accumulate the field test results which can cover the almost whole area of South Korea. Currently these field data are used widely in a feasibility study or a preliminary design step for tunnel construction in Korea. Regarding the difficulties in a site selection and a test performance for the in-situ stress measurement at an off-shore area, the in-situ stress regime obtained from the field experiences in the land area can be used indirectly for the design of a sub-sea tunnel. From the hydrofracturing stress measurements, the trend of magnitude and direction of in-situ stress field was shown identically with the geological information in Korea.

• Tunnel and Underground Space
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• v.23 no.5
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• pp.362-371
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• 2013

We conducted hollow cylinder tensile strength tests and Brazilian tests in Seokmo granite to measure tensile strength necessary for estimating the magnitude of the maximum horizontal principal stress in hydraulic fracturing stress measurements. Two different pressurization rates were used in hollow cylinder tests. Tensile strengths were determined to be higher at higher pressurization rate, which suggests that tensile strength should be measurement at the same rate used in actual in situ hydraulic fracturing tests. Considering the effect of pressurization rate and specimen size on tensile strength, the hollow cylinder tests and Brazilian tests yield similar results each other. This demonstrates that Brazilian tests can be utilized to produce representative tensile strengths for interpretation of hydraulic fracturing test results.

• 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.4 no.1
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• pp.55-62
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• 1994

The hydraulic fracturing in a field site was performed for the measurement of in-situ stresses. For the estimation of the effect of a preexisting inclined fracture, the test on a preexisting fracture zone was also conducted. From the measurements at three shallow depths, the ratios of max. to min. horizontal stress showed the range of 1.19-1.56 and the K values showed the range of 2.62-3.86. In case of a preexisting fracture with the inclination of 15 degrees, the stresses calculated as upper bound values by considering it. It seemed from this that the inclination less than 15 degrees had small effect on the stress calculation.

• Tunnel and Underground Space
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• v.18 no.1
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• pp.80-89
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• 2008

The influence of in-situ rock stress on the stability of an underground rock structure increases as the construction depth become deeper and the scale of a rock structure become larger. In general, hydraulic fracturing stress measurement has been performed in the surface boreholes of the target area at the design stage of an underground structure. However, for some areas where the high horizontal stresses were observed or where the overstressed conditions caused by topographical and geological factors are expected, it is desirable to conduct additional in-situ stress measurement in the underground construction site to obtain more detailed stress information for ensuring the stability of a rock structure and the propriety of current design. The study area was a construction site for the additional underground oil storage facility located in the south-east part of OO city, Jeollanam-do. Previous detailed site investigation prior to the design of underground structures revealed that the excessive horizontal stress field with the horizontal stress ratio(K) greater than 3.0 was observed in the construction area. In this study, a total of 13 hydraulic fracturing stress measurements was conducted in two boreholes drill from the two water tunnel sites in the study area. The investigation zone was from 180 m to 300 m in depth from the surface and all of the fracture tracing works were carried out by acoustic televiewer scanning. For some testing intervals at more than 200 m ind depth from surface, the high horizontal stress components the horizontal stress ratio(K) greater than 2.50 were observed. And the overall investigation results showed a good agreement with the previously performed test.

• Tunnel and Underground Space
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• v.15 no.2 s.55
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• pp.157-167
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• 2005

Current initial rock stress state is one of the key factors required to evaluate the stability and failure around an excavated opening and its importance increases as the construction depth become deeper and the scale of the rock structure become larger. In this paper, the study was performed to evaluate the characteristics of the regional stress state at Chuncheon-Yanggu mountainous region, the East-North part of Kyeonggi Massif. Forty nine field stress measurements in 9 boreholes were conducted at the depth from 20 m to 290 m by hydraulic fracturing method. The fracturing tracing works were carried out by acoustic televiewer scanning. The study results revealed that the different intial rock stress states presented at different formation rock type and the excessive horizontal stress state with stress ratio(K) close to 3.0 was measured at the depth of 200 m and deeper in the intrusive unite body of the study area. The results from the investigation of excessive horizontal stress and its effect on failure mode showed that there exist several points where the localized excessive horizontal stresses are big enough to potentially induce brittle failures around the future openings greater than 100 m in depth within the granite body of the study area.

• Tunnel and Underground Space
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• v.31 no.3
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• pp.145-166
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• 2021

Korea Stress Map database is built by integrating actual data of 1,400 in-situ stress measurements using hydraulic fracturing and overcoring method in South Korea. Korea Stress Map 2020 is presented based on the guideline proposed by World Stress Map Project. As detailed data, stress ratio and maximum horizontal stress direction distribution for each region are also presented. The dominant maximum horizontal stress direction in the Korean Peninsula is from northeast to southeast, and the magnitude of the in-situ stress is relatively distributed. There is some stress heterogeneity caused by local characteristics such as topographical and geological properties. We investigated case studies in which the in-situ stress was affected by mountainous topography, difference in rock quality of fracture zone, presence of mine or underground cavities, and geological structure of fault zone.

• Tunnel and Underground Space
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• v.26 no.4
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• pp.304-315
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• 2016

In this study, the current horizontal stress characteristics of the Tertiary rock formations in the Pohang Basin are investigated on the basis of the in-situ rock stress measurements at depths from 75 m to 716 m of the 3 test boreholes in the Doumsan area, Pohang. The deep hydraulic fracturing stress measurement results indicated that the horizontal stress components in the test site appear far lower than the average ones by the linear fit for the data set measured from the other domestic sites. But, borehole scanning revealed clearly that lots of small and large scale borehole failures occurred due to the low strength characteristics of the existing rocks. To obtain more accurate and overall information on the horizontal stress direction, the integrated analysis combining the hydraulic fracturing stress measurement and borehole scanning data set were additionally carried out. The analysis results showed that in the upper sedimentary and the lower volcanic rock formation, the dominant orientations of the current maximum horizontal stress components were appeared in the range of $80^{\circ}{\sim}100^{\circ}$ (N80E~N80W) and $120^{\circ}{\sim}140^{\circ}$ (N60W~N40W), respectively. From this study result it was found that the maximum horizontal stress directions have a tendency to rotate in a clockwise direction as the rock formation changes with depth in the test site.

• Tunnel and Underground Space
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• v.18 no.2
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• pp.149-161
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• 2008

It is nearly impossible to estimate the exact state of the current rock stress of interest site by the theoretical and physical approaches except some specific geological situations. This means that in-situ stress measurement is a unique way to obtain reliable information on rock stress especially for civil and mining engineering related problems. Since late in the 90's, in-situ rock stress tests have been widely conducted to provide the quantitative information on the stress state of engineering site at the design stage of an underground rock structure in the Kyungsang Basin, Korea. The study area is the near surface regions at the depth less than 300 m in the Kyungsang Basin. It includes Yeosoo to the west and Busan to the east. Totally, 270 in-situ stress measurements were conducted in the surface test boreholes at the depth from 14 m to 300 m by hydraulic fracturing method. In this paper, based on the measurement data set, the overall characteristics of the current in-situ rock stress fields in the study area are briefly described. And also the investigation results on the difference between the stress distributions for the granitoid and the andesitic rock region are also introduced. Finally, the distributions of the regional horizontal stress directions in Busan and the Yangsan faults area are shown.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society for Rock Mechanics Conference
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• 2008.03a
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• pp.79-88
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• 2008

Since the hydraulic fracturing field testing method was introduced first to Korean geotechnical engineers in 1994, there have been lots of progresses in a hardware system as well as an interpretation tool. The hydrofracturing system of first generation was the pipe-line type, so it was not easy to handle. It had been modified to a wire-line system at their second generation. It was more compact one but it also needed an additional air-compressor. Our current system is much more compact and operated by all-in-one system, so it doesn't need an additional air-compressor. With a progress in a hardware system, the software for analyzing the in-situ stress regime has also been progressed. For example, the shut-in pressure, which is the most ambiguous parameter to be obtained from hydrofracturing pressure curves, can now be acquired automatically from the various methods. While the hardware and software for hydrofracturing tests are being developed during the last decade, the author could accumulate the field test results which can cover the almost whole area of South Korea. Currently these field data are used widely in a feasibility study or a preliminary design step for tunnel construction in Korea. Regarding the difficulties in a site selection and a test performance for the in-situ stress measurement at an off-shore area, the in-situ stress regime obtained from the field experiences in the land area can be used indirectly for the design of a sub-sea tunnel. From the hydrofracturing stress measurements, the trend of magnitude and direction of in-situ stress field was shown identically with the geological information in Korea.