• Journal of Korean Tunnelling and Underground Space Association
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• v.5 no.2
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• pp.147-159
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• 2003

Since early in the 90's, as the need for construction of underground rock structures has been largely increased, the in-situ rock stress measurement has been widely carried out to provide the quantitative information on the initial stress state of test site at the design stage of underground rock structures. Among the diverse method developed for measuring rock stress, hydraulic fracturing method is most popularly used because it is applicable at pre-construction stage and has no limit in testing depth. In this paper a study on initial rock stress state at shallow depth of the plain gneiss region in the central part of Seoul was performed on the basis of the in-situ hydraulic fracturing stress measurement results from the 11 test boreholes. And overall characteristics of the initial stress field of the study area are discussed.

• The Journal of Engineering Geology
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• v.28 no.1
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• pp.1-9
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• 2018

We propose a borehole test technique to estimate permeability of rocks in borehole. The borehole tests are hydraulic injection tests such as leak-off test and hydraulic fracturing tests, which are originally conducted for stress or casing integrity assessment and not for permeability measurement. We use one-dimensional radial diffusion equation to interpret fluid injection test results in terms of permeability. We apply this technique to a leak-off test conducted at a depth of 700 m in a wellbore, where rock formation is mudstone. The estimated permeability is at an order of $10^{-16}m^2$, which is somewhat high but within the range reported for mudstones previously. Quantitative rick assessment suggests that an accurate measurement of open hole section length is important to improve reliability of results. More data may be needed to ensure the reliability of this technique. If validated, however, this technique can provide cost-effective estimation of in situ permeability without conducting independent permeability tests in borehole.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.21 no.5
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• pp.103-110
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• 2005

In this paper, the characteristics of excessive horizontal stress components in Korea were studied using more than five hundred measured data set of in-situ hydraulic fracturing test. Based on the in-situ testing data, the magnitude and orientation of the horizontal stress component and variation of stress ratio (K) with depth were investigated. And also horizontal stress magnitude versus depth relationships and distribution limits of stress ratio components were suggested. For the depth less than 310 m in the entire territory, the stress ratio has a tendency to diminish and stabilize with depth, but fur some areas, it was revealed that the excessive horizontal stress fields with stress ratio close to 3.0 below 200 m in depth have formed. The results from the investigation of excessive horizontal stress regions showed that there existed several regions where the localized excessive horizontal stress was big enough to potentially induce brittle failure around the openings at less than 300 m in depth.

• 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.

• Computers and Concrete
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• v.19 no.2
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• pp.171-177
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• 2017

Water pressure test operation is used before the grouting to determine the rate of penetrability, the necessity and estimations related to grouting, by the penetration of water into the borehole. One of the parameters which have the highest effect is pressure of water penetration since the application of excessive pressure causes the hydraulic fracture to occur in the rock mass, and on the other hand, it must not be so small that prevents from seeing mechanical weaknesses and the rate of permeability. Mathematical modeling is used for the first time in this study to determine the optimum pressure. Thus, the joints that exist in the rock mass are simulated using cylindrical shell model. The joint surroundings are also modeled through Pasternak environment. To obtain equations governing the joints and the surroundings, energy method is used accompanied by Hamilton principle and an analytical solution method is used to obtain the maximum pressure. In order to validate the modeling, the pressure values obtained by the model were used in the sites of Seymareh and Aghbolagh dams and the relative error rates were measured considering the differences between calculated and actual pressures. Modeling in the sections of Seymareh dam showed 4.75, 3.93, 4.8 percent error rates and in the sections of Aghbolagh dam it rendered the values of 22.43, 5.22, 2.6 percent. The results indicate that this modeling can be used to estimate the amount of pressure for hydraulic fracture in water pressure test, to predict it and to prevent it.

• Geophysics and Geophysical Exploration
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• v.19 no.3
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• pp.111-120
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• 2016

In order to enhance the connectivity of fracture network as fluid path in enhanced/engineered geothermal system (EGS), the exact locating of hydraulic fractured zone is very important. Hydraulic fractures can be tracked by locating of microseismic events which are occurred during hydraulic fracture stimulation at each stage. However, since the subsurface velocity is changed due to hydraulic fracturing at each stage, in order to find out the exact location of microseismic events, we have to consider the velocity change due to hydraulic fracturing at previous stage when we perform the mapping of microseimic events at the next stage. In this study, we have modified 3D locating algorithm of microseismic data which was developed by Kim et al. (2015) and have developed 3D velocity update algorithm using occurred microseismic data. Eikonal equation which can efficiently calculate traveltime for complex velocity model at anywhere without shadow zone is used as forward engine in our inversion. Computational cost is dramatically reduced by using Fresnel volume approach to construct Jacobian matrix in velocity inversion. Through the numerical test which simulates the geothermal survey geometry, we demonstrated that the initial velocity model was updated by using microseismic data. In addition, we confirmed that relocation results of microseismic events by using updated velocity model became closer to true locations.

• Tunnel and Underground Space
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• v.26 no.5
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• pp.409-417
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• 2016

The shale gas is emerging as one of the oil and gas resources which can replace the traditional oil and gas resources. As the shale layer where the shale gas is deposited has low permeability, the hydrofracturing method is required to improve the productivity. This study is designed to conduct the laboratory hydrofracturing test on the samples which are modeled after the drilling hole having the general drilling hole and spiral groove. And compare the initial fracturing pressure and fluid contact between them in order to the result of the hydrofracturing depending on the shape of the drilling hole. In addition, the results were compared with the numerical modeling values from 3DEC and they were also compared with the data from the advance researches. It was found from the study that rather than the contact area of the high pressures water, the force concentration depending on the form of guide hole was more effective in the hydrofracturing.

• 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.

• The Journal of Engineering Geology
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• v.10 no.3
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• pp.237-245
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• 2000

This study was for characterizing the engineering geological properties of Moryang Fault, and providing the basic data for tunnel design. Land-sat image analysis, geologic surveys, resistivity prospecting and 3-dimensional analysis for results of resistivity prospecting, core boring, mineralogical identification and chemical analysis for the bedrock, and K-Ar age dating for fault clay were carried out for the study of Moryang Fault which is located at Duckhyunri Sangbukmyun Uljinkun Ulsan metropolis. As a result of the study, it was shown that strike/dip was N20-3$0^{\circ}C$E/70-9$0^{\circ}C$NW, width of fault ranged from 20 to 60m(maximum 80m), and depth was more than 50m. K-Ar age dating results of fault clay were 5,700$\pm$1.129Ma and 1,900$\pm$0.380Ma. Hydraulic fracturing test results showed the principal stress direction similar to the strike of Moryang Fault.