• Tunnel and Underground Space
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• v.19 no.4
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• pp.304-317
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• 2009

Most crystalline rocks have much higher compressive strength than tensile strength and show brittle failure. In-situ rock mass, strong enough in general sense, often fails in brittle manner when subjected to high stress exceeding strength in due of geometrically induced stress concentration or of high initial stress. Therefore, it is necessary to verify the brittle failure characteristics of rock and rock mass for proper stability assessment of underground structures excavated in great depths. In this study, damage controlled tests were conducted on biotite-granite and granitic gneiss, which are the two major crystalline rock types in Korea, to obtain the strain dependency characteristics of the cohesion and friction angle. A Cohesion-Weakening Friction-Strengthening (CWFS hereafter) model for each rock type was constructed and a series of compression tests were carried out numerically while varying confining pressures. The same tests were also conducted assuming the rock is Mohr-Coulomb material and results were compared.

• Journal of the Computational Structural Engineering Institute of Korea
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• v.21 no.1
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• pp.35-42
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• 2008

In the nuclear power plant, early detection of fatigue crack by non-destructive test (NDT) equipment due to the thermal cyclic load is very important in terms of strict safety regulation. To this end, many efforts are exerted to the fabrication of artificial cracked specimen for practicing engineers in the NDT company. The crack of this kind, however, cannot be made by conventional machining, but should be made under thermal cyclic load that is close to the in-situ condition, which takes tremendous time due to the repetition. In this study, thermal loading condition is investigated to minimize the time for fabricating the cracked specimen using simulation technique which predicts the crack initiation and propagation behavior. Simulation and experiment are conducted under an initial assumed condition for validation purpose. A number of simulations are conducted next under a variety of heating and cooling conditions, from which the best solution to achieve minimum time for crack with wanted size is found. In the simulation, general purpose software ANSYS is used for the stress analysis, MATLAB is used to compute crack initiation life, and ZENCRACK, which is special purpose software for crack growth prediction, is used to compute crack propagation life. As a result of the study, the time for the crack to reach the size of 1mm is predicted from the 418 hours at the initial condition to the 319 hours at the optimum condition, which is about 24% reduction.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.24 no.6
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• pp.77-84
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• 2008

The existing equations for radial consolidation cannot account for the changes of well resistance with time and cannot predict the appropriate in-situ consolidation curve. In this study, small cylinder cell tests are performed to evaluate the discharge capacity of PVD. Also, a block sample of 1.2 m in diameter and 2.0 m in height was consolidated to observe the change in the drainage capacity with time for three types of PVD. From the test results on a block sample, the drainage curves normalized with initial drainage of each PVD are similar, regardless of the PVD type and the consolidation curve, which is predicted using solutions of radial consolidation based on the discharge capacity measured in a small cylinder cell tests, significantly overestimates the degree of consolidation. The term of well resistance in the radial consolidation solution was back-calculated to fit the consolidation curve of a large block sample and it is defined as the time dependent well resistance factor, L(t). The L(t) was found to be linearly proportional to the dimensionless time factor, Th. It was also shown that the consolidation curve evaluated by using L(t) provides more accurate prediction than the existing solution.

• Journal of the Korean Geosynthetics Society
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• v.16 no.3
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• pp.41-49
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• 2017

In this study, a series of laboratory and in-situ tests such as FVTs and CPTUs were carried out to evaluate undrained shear strength related to quasi overconsolidated characteristics in the near-surface clay at Busan new port. Using unconfined compression and field vane test results, correlation between undrained shear strength and effective overburden pressure, that is, equation of $10+0.262{\sigma}^{\prime}v_0$ (kPa) was obtained. From oedometer tests, OCR is around 1.9 at depths lower than 7 m and OCR below this depth is very close to unit. As stated by Hanzawa et al. (1983), a natural clay deposit in the near-surface, even in normally consolidated state, is more and less apparently overconsolidated due to aging effects such as chemical bonding. Based on this concept, it can be inferred that intercept of equation is mobilized due to chemical bonding irrespective of effective overburden pressure and strength incremental ratio in normally consolidated state is 0.262. From CPTU results, same trend was confirmed. The further study should be necessary to judge whether upper clay is under overconsolidated state due to chemical bonding or not based on the depositional environment.

• The Journal of Engineering Geology
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• v.25 no.3
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• pp.357-368
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• 2015

Brittle failure of Mesozoic granite in the Daejeon region is predicted using empirical analysis and numerical modeling techniques. The input parameters selected for these techniques were based on the results of laboratory tests, including damage-controlled tests. Rock masses that were considered to be strong during laboratory testing were assigned to "group A" and those considered to be extremely strong were assigned to "group B". The properties of each group were then used in the analyses. In-situ stress measurements, or the ratio of horizontal to vertical stress (k), were also necessary for the analyses, but no such measurements have been made in the study area. Therefore, k values of 1, 2, and 3 were assumed. In the case of k=1, empirical analysis and numerical modeling show no indication of brittle failure from the surface to1000 m depth. When k=2, brittle failure of the rock mass occurs at depths below 800 m. For k=3, brittle failure occurs at depths below 600 m. Although both the Cohesion Weakening Friction Strengthening (CWFS) and Mohr-Coulomb models were used to predict brittle failure, only the CWFS model performed well in simulating the range and depth of the brittle failure zone.

• Journal of the Korean GEO-environmental Society
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• v.10 no.6
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• pp.105-115
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• 2009

In this study, SPT, FV, and CPT tests were performed at five very soft grounds in southern coast of Korea to characterize the $S_u$ of very soft ground. In addition, a new modified SPT that is applicable to very soft ground was developed. Tests results showed that in very soft ground (N<2), the $S_u$ was lower than 12.5 kPa using the empirical N-Su correlation, and lower than 50 kPa and 65 kPa using vane shear test and CPT, respectively. It was shown that the results of in-situ tests were higher than those estimated from the N-Su correlation, and it was also demonstrated that the range of estimated $S_u$ was quite wide. New correlations that relate the modified SPT $N_m$ with Su from FV and CPT were developed, which are $S_u=1.76N_m-10.47$ and $S_u=1.82N_m-9.71$, respectively.

• Journal of the Korean GEO-environmental Society
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• v.6 no.4
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• pp.47-58
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• 2005

Development of underground space is conducted for various useful facility and underground structures and deep excavation technology for reclaimed area has been researched and developed. The seepage flow and behavior of phreatic line in reclaimed area was predominated by transient flow caused by tidal action. Also the soil-water characteristic relation is most important factor for transient flow analysis, therefore the research about the soil-water characteristic is strongly required. In this paper, laboratory tests (pressure cell, desiccator, and tensiometer test) and theoretical analysis were performed to investigate the soil-water characteristic such as air-entry value, metric suction, and residual water content. And the feasibility of prediction method for soil-water characteristic are presented by transient seepage analysis and comparison between analysis results and in-situ measured seepage flux in LNG TK-00 storage tank. Based on the result of laboratory and theoretical analysis, Fredlund and Xing's method provide to work out well for reclaimed ground soils. Also, the transient analysis result is more reasonable and effective for design of deep excavation work in coastal and reclaimed ground.

• 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.

• Journal of the Korean GEO-environmental Society
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• v.23 no.1
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• pp.39-49
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• 2022

Expandable steel pipe piles are installed by inserting expansion equipment to increase the cross-sectional area of steel pipes, which can improve the pile performance compared to micro-piles. In this paper, a hydraulic expansion device was developed to expand steel pipe piles in practice. A series of laboratory and field tests were conducted to verify the performance of the developed expansion device to expand steel pipes. The expansion capability and expandable range was evaluated by measuring the strain and expansion time at the maximum pressure of the hydraulic expansion device. The thinner steel pipe, the larger strain but longer expansion time required in the test. For example, the 4.0-mm-thick steel pipe showed strain reduction by 30% and a decrease in the required expansion time by 40% compared to the 2.9-mm-thick steel pipe. In addition, in-situ expansion tests were performed to verify the expandability of steel pipes under the ground, and the exhumed specimen showed clear expanded sections. The structural integrity was determined by comparing the material performance the original and expanded specimens.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.24 no.5
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• pp.117-127
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• 2008

The volumetric pressure plate extractor (VPPE) was modified for the measurement of shear wave velocity ($V_s$) at various levels of matric suction as well as soil water characteristic curve (SWCC). A non-destructive technique with a pair of bender element (BE) was employed in order to measure the $V_s$ and the corresponding maximum shear modulus ($G_{max}$) of unsaturated soil specimens. Three types of soil were collected from different road construction sites in Korea. For all test soils, the variations in $G_{max}$ with the various levels of water content and matric suction were investigated using the developed apparatus. Compared with the preceding results from the suction-controlled torsional shear (TS) testing system and in-situ seismic tests, the feasibility fur evaluating modulus characteristics of unsaturated compacted soils with the developed VPPE-BE system was assessed. It was confirmed that the newly developed system would be potentially helpful in modeling seasonal variation of modulus.