• Economic and Environmental Geology
• /
• v.38 no.3 s.172
• /
• pp.305-317
• /
• 2005

This study addresses the preliminary results of rock slope stability analyses including hazard assessments for slope failure conducted on the selected sections of rural road cut slope which are about 4 km long. The study area is located in the Mt. Chuntae northeast of Busan and mainly composed of Cretaceous rhyolitic ash-flow tuff', fallout tuff, rhyolitc and andesite. The volcanic rock mass in the area has a number of discontinuities that produce a potentially unstable slope, as the present cut slope is more than 70 degrees in most of the slope sections. Discontinuity geometry data were collected at selected 8 scanline sections and analyzed to estimate important discontinuity geometry parameters to perform rock slope kinematic and block theory analyses. Kinematic analysis for plane sliding has resulted in maximum safe slope angles greater than $65^{\circ}$ for most of the discontinuities. For most of the wedges, maximum safe cut slope angles greater than $45^{\circ}$ were obtained. Maximum safe slope angles greater than 80" were obtained fur most of the discontinuities in the toppling case. The block theory analysis resulted in the identification of potential key blocks (type II) in the SL4, SL5, SL6 and SL8 sections. The chance of sliding taking place through a type ll block under a combined gravitational and external loading is quite high in the investigated area. The results support in-field observations of a potentially unstable slope that could become hazardous under external forces. The results obtained through limit equilibrium slope stability analyses show how a stable slope can become an unstable slope as the water pressure acting on joints increases and how a stable slope under Barton's shear strength criterion can fail as the worst case scenario of using Mohr-Coulomb criterion.

• Tunnel and Underground Space
• /
• v.31 no.4
• /
• pp.221-242
• /
• 2021

A numerical study of the performance assesment of coupled thermo-hydro-mechanical (THM) processes in improved Korean reference disposal system (KRS⁺) for high-level radioactive waste is conducted using TOUGH2-MP/FLAC3D simulator. Decay heat from high-level radioactive waste increases the temperature of the repository, and it decreases as decay heat is reduced. The maximum temperature of the repository is below a maximum temperature criterion of 100℃. Saturation of bentonite buffer adjacent to the canister is initially reduced due to pore water evaporation induced by temperature increase. Bentonite buffer is saturated 250 years after the disposal of high-level radioactive waste by inflow of groundwater from the surrounding rock mass. Initial saturation of rock mass decreases as groundwater in rock mass is moved to bentnonite buffer by suction, but rock mass is saturated after inflow of groundwater from the far-field area. Stress changes at rock mass are compared to the Mohr-Coulomb failure criterion and the spalling strength in order to investigate the potential rock failure by thermal stress and swelling pressure. Additional simulations are conducted with the reduced spacing of deposition holes. The maximum temperature of bentonite buffer exceeds 100℃ as deposition hole spacing is smaller than 5.5 m. However, temperature of about 56.1% volume of bentonite buffer is below 90℃. The methodology of numerical modeling used in this study can be applied to the performance assessment of coupled THM processes for high-level radioactive waste repositories with various input parameters and geological conditions such as site-specific stress models and geothermal gradients.

• Journal of the Korea Concrete Institute
• /
• v.19 no.1
• /
• pp.121-130
• /
• 2007

To investigate the enhancement in strength and deformation capacities of concrete confined by FRP composites, tests under axial loads were carried out on three groups of thirty six short columns in circular section with diverse GFRP confining reinforcement. The major test variables considered include fiber content or orientation, wrap or tube type by varying the end loading condition, and continuous or discontinuous confinement depending on the presence of vortical spices between its two halves. The circumferential FRP strains at failure for different types of confinements were also investigated with emphasis. Various analytical models capable of predicting the ultimate strength and strain of the confined concrete were examined by comparing to observed results. Tests results showed that FRP wraps or tubes provide the substantial increase in strength and deformation, while partial wraps comprising the vertical discontinuities fail in an explosive manner with less increase in strength, particularly in deformation. A bilinear stress-strain response was observed throughout all tests with some variations of strain hardening. The failure hoop strains measured on the FRP surface were less than those obtained from the tensile coupons in all tests with a high degree of variation. In overall, existing predictive equations overestimated ultimate strengths and strains observed in present tests, with a much larger scatter related to the latter. For more accuracy, two simple design- oriented equations correlated with present tests are proposed. The strength equation was derived using the Mohr-Coulomb failure criterion, whereas the strain equation was based on entirely fitting of test data including the unconfined concrete strength as one of governing factors.