• Tunnel and Underground Space
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• v.29 no.1
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• pp.30-37
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• 2019

Some leading countries in mining have a very quantitative guideline for underground mine opening design which is useful to minimize mine hazards such as rockfall and collapse. Those hazards sometimes can cause a huge damage on human life and property in the mines. Construction guidelines of underground mines in Korea consist of qualitative and general expressions although the workers' safety rules and guides are well provided. Recently, mining operations in Korea are going underground due to the environmental regulations and resource depletion at shallow depth, and therefore there is a growing demand on a specialized and systematic guideline for mine opening design securing the underground stability. In this paper, current status of mining industry, research trends, and mining guidelines in Korea and overseas have been reviewed to give an insight into developing a new Korean guideline for underground mine design.

• Tunnel and Underground Space
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• v.27 no.1
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• pp.1-11
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• 2017

Most of the local limestone mines are developed as large-opening underground mines, while mine ventilation is heavily dependent on the natural ventilation and auxiliary systems, rather than the mechanical ventilation system using main fans. The current auxiliary ventilation system with fan and ducting requires optimization since enhanced deployment of diesel equipment demands higher airflow rate and the associated cost is expected to be too excessive for the local mine operators. This paper aims at optimizing the fan capacity for the working site ventilation through comparing the fan pressure in the mine airway and the ventilation efficiency of an axial-flow fan and a propeller fan developed in this study.

• Tunnel and Underground Space
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• v.28 no.4
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• pp.358-371
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• 2018

The stability of openings in the underground mine is major concern in the operation of mines that must ensure productivity and safety. Among many rock conditions affecting cavities stability, the width and height of the opening is an important design factor. In this paper, we consider to determine the maximum unsupported span of a opening in a limestone mine by using the Q system among several rock classification schemes. In order to determine the span of the unsupported opening in the limestone mine, rock mass classifications were carried out at over 200 sites in the underground limestone mines. The relationships by using the Q system and the stability graph proposed by Mathews to determine the maximum span of the unsupported opening were derived and compared. We propose a new classification method that combines GSI and RMR rock classification systems to make it easy to use in a field.

• Tunnel and Underground Space
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• v.29 no.6
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• pp.407-424
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• 2019

To prevent possible accidents by surface subsidence, backfilling operation is known to be one of the most effective methods for ensuring the long-term ground stability because it can eliminate fundamentally the origin of underground mine opening collapse. Also, for effective backfilling of underground mine opening, it is necessary to keep monitoring of backfilled mine opening for analyzing several factors such as filling effect with change of backfill material and characteristics of backfill material. Therefore, in this study, a monitoring system which consists of measuring device and software program has developed to examine the performance of backfilling operation and verify to field applicability to underground mine. Sensors for measuring device have been selected through study of recent research papers and mock-up test has been performed to verify the system compliance. Also, monitoring result of the mock-up test compared to case studies in some countries. From monitoring result fo the mock-up test compared to case studies in some countries, consequently, it was concluded that the developed real-time monitoring system had ensured filed applicability in the underground mine.

• Journal of the Korea Society for Simulation
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• v.17 no.3
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• pp.45-51
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• 2008

The enemy will attempt to destroy our troop's core facilities using various fire supports at the beginning of war. Among these fire supports, artillery is given a most deal of weight and mine artillery is a great threat to our troops because it has a superior predominance on the ability of survival. A study about hitting mine artillery has been developed inside the military field only. However, these studies had been mostly qualitative analyses, thus having limitations in the aspects of nonobjectiveness and simplicity. Current study attempts to develop theory on hitting mine artillery beginning from mine opening until the target got hit, based on the assumption that one side which has inferior force will attack first. We studied on hitting mine artillery in a quantitative way using DEVS method.

• Tunnel and Underground Space
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• v.25 no.6
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• pp.543-555
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• 2015

At present, local limestone mines with large opening employ auxiliary fans for workplace ventilation which have been used in coal mines with much smaller airways. Considering the low static pressure loss in the large-opening mines, high pressure auxiliary fans face serious economical limitations mainly due to their excessive capacity. The optimal fan selected for the ventilation in large-opening working places should supply air quantity enough for maintaining safe environment and keep its operating cost as low as possible. This study focuses on the development of a low pressure auxiliary fan designed to have smaller range of the static head but to have more potential for higher ventilation and energy efficiency. The flow characteristics of high and low pressure auxiliary fans were theoretical as well as experimentally investigated to assess the ventilation efficiency in term of environmental and economical aspects. Moreover, the low pressure fan was tested in two limestone mine sites with small and large cross-sectional areas for evaluating its ventilation efficiency. Results from this study can be applied to improve the economy and efficiency of auxiliary fan for ensuring better air quality and work environment management.

• Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.23 no.3
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• pp.265-270
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• 2018

This study was to measure the exposure of diesel vehicle drivers to elemental carbon (EC) as an indicator of diesel particulate matter (DPM) emitted from diesel vehicles in an underground coal mine over 3 years as per NIOSH Method 5040. Our study results (range $10{\mu}g/m^3-377{\mu}g/m^3$ for the loader drivers, $19{\mu}g/m^3-162{\mu}g/m^3$ for the SMV drivers) were similar or less than previous study results (range $5{\mu}g/m^3-2,200{\mu}g/m^3$) for normal mine operations. From this study results, it appeared that the exposures decreased in the second and the third year. It is thought that the reasons for the decreased personal DPM (EC) exposures over the 3 years were related to the following recommendations; more frequent monitoring and maintenance of the diesel vehicles and their DPM filtration systems, more consistent monitoring of the mine's ventilation system and changes of work practices such as minimizing the opening of diesel vehicle windows. An educational program on adverse health effects of exposure to DPM and use of respiratory protection (P2 respirators) also assisted in minimizing driver exposure to DPM.

• Tunnel and Underground Space
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• v.26 no.6
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• pp.455-465
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• 2016

The collapse of underground mine development void for mineral resources can cause the subsidence of ground surface. In order to prevent the subsidence of ground, data such as maps or pictures of past mining site is important information for current mine reclamation works. In particular, mine subsidence management was based on mining maps and pictures. The process of the mining area surveys, safety evaluation, and ground reinforcement are normally possible with information such as maps and pictures in past mining. During the Japanese colonial period and 1960's, a lot of mines were developed in Korea indiscriminately. However, mining information at that time is limited to use. In the future, mining information will become even more rare. MIRECO intends to establish a realistic alternative solution. In this study, the basic numerical information of developed mine tunnels in Korea is statistically reviewed, and advanced underground cavity measuring technology was studied. 4,473 mine tunnel opening data of 1,784 abandoned mines in korea were collected and sorted. As a result of the analysis, the average value of small mine tunnel openings in Korea was 1.982 m in height and 1.959 m in width. The mean value of shape factor was analyzed as 0.485. The summary of these numerical mine data will be helpful for understanding and researching Korean abandoned mines. Therefore, the development of measurement technology for abandoned mine cavities and tunnels is expected to facilitate more effective mine subsidence management works in Korea.

• Tunnel and Underground Space
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• v.33 no.2
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• pp.95-107
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• 2023

In this study, the effect of repeated traffic vibration on the long-term stability of mine openings is analyzed for re-utilization of abandoned mine galleries. The research mine in this study is an underground limestone mine which is developed by room-and-pillar mining method, and a dynamic numerical analysis is performed assuming that the research mine will be utilized as a logistics warehouse. The actual traffic vibration generated by the mining vehicles is measured directly, and its waveform is used as input data for dynamic numerical analysis, As a results of dynamic numerical analysis, after 20,000 repetitions of traffic vibration, the mine openings is analyzed to be stable, but an increase in the maximum principal stress and an additional area of plastic zone are observed in the analysis section. As shown in the changes of displacement, volumetric strain, and maximum principal stress which are measured at the mine opening walls. It is confirmed that if the repeated traffic vibration is continuously applied, the instability of the mine openings can be increased. Authors expect that the results of this study can be used as a reference for basic study on utilization of abandoned mine.

• Tunnel and Underground Space
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• v.27 no.6
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• pp.406-421
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• 2017

This study describes a precise numerical analysis process by adopting the real image of mine openings obtained by LIDAR, which can produce a point cloud data by measuring the target surface numerically. Research area is a section of underground limestone mine which is used hybrid room-and-pillar method for improving the production rate. From the application of LIDAR to this section several results were deduced, that is, the central axis of upper and lower vertical safety pillars is distorted to the direction of NW and the section area of lower vertical safety pillar is $34m^2$ smaller than the designed area of $100m^2$. The results of precise measurement in geometrical shape of mine openings and precise simulation in numerical analysis confirms that LIDAR techniques can be suggested as a valuable tool for stability analysis in underground mine by configuring the mine opening shape.