• Explosives and Blasting
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• v.42 no.3
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• pp.49-57
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• 2024

Pre-fracturing is the blasting method to weaken the rock mass prior to the main excavation. This study aims to evaluate the effectiveness of pre-fracturing by using half the explosive charge typically employed in conventional blasting designs. Field tests conducted at a quarry in Gapyeong showed that noise levels were reduced by 2.7 dB due to the decreased amount of explosive per blast hole, and vibration levels were controlled to the precision vibration control blasting standard. Rock weakening was confirmed through induced cracks observed on the surface and core samples, and it was noted that the weakening effect of the blasting decreased as the burden increased. The vibrations from conventional blasting were found to be lower than those from pre-fracturing. This was attributed more to the geological conditions, such as joints, rather than the blasting design factors like explosive amount, burden, and the number of free face.

• Tunnel and Underground Space
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• v.34 no.5
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• pp.421-432
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• 2024

Pre-fracturing, a type of pre-conditioning blast, is a method used to weaken rock masses prior to mechanical excavation. In this study, various laboratory tests were conducted on rock core samples obtained from the field to verify the effectiveness of pre-fracturing in controlling the BIDZ (Blast-Induced Damaged Zone) by measuring the physical properties of rock cores obtained from a test site and assessing changes in these properties. In the EDZ (Excavation Damaged Zone) caused by combined excavation using blasting and mechanical excavation, the effect of blasting is generally more significant than that of mechanical excavation, so BIDZ control directly leads to EDZ control. In terms of Poisson's ratio, elastic wave velocity, porosity, density, thermal conductivity, tensile strength and hydraulic conductivity, the BIDZ size in pre-fracturing was smaller than that of conventional blasting. However, no clear reduction in the BIDZ was observed in the case of Young's modulus and uniaxial compressive strength. By applying a theoretical formula predicting the range of tensile cracks caused by blasting and comparing it with the laboratory results, the BIDZ was reasonably predicted. Nonetheless, limitations in accurately predicting BIDZ size were identified due to assumptions regarding ground conditions and charge density in the formula.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.32 no.3
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• pp.321-333
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• 2023

Rock masses often contain natural fractures of varying sizes, and the size of the natural fractures may affect the propagation of hydraulic fractures. We conduct a series of triaxial hydraulic fracturing tests to investigate the effect of the pre-existing fracture size a on hydraulic fracture propagation. Experimental results show that the pre-existing fracture size impacts hydraulic fracture propagation. As the pre-existing fracture size increases, the hydraulic fracture propagates towards the pre-existing fracture tips, evidenced by the decreased distance between the final hydraulic fracture and the pre-existing fracture tips. Furthermore, the attracting effect of pre-existing fracture tips increases when the distance between the wellbore and the pre-existing fracture is short (L/D=2 or 4 in this study). With increased distance between the wellbore and the pre-existing fracture (L/D=6 in this study), the hydraulic fracture propagates to the middle of the pre-existing fracture rather than the tips, as the attracting effect of the pre-existing fracture diminishes.

• 한국지구물리탐사학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2003.11a
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• pp.244-251
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• 2003

A two-dimensional BEM code, $FRACOD^{2D}$, was applied to simulate fracture initiation and propagation processes in a rock pillar during an in situ heater test of a rock pillar planned at the $\"{A}sp\"{o}$ Underground Rock laboratory of SKB, in Southern Sweden. To take the advantage of conventional BEM for simulating fracturing processes, but without efforts for domain integral transformation, a hybrid approach is developed to simulate the fracturing processes in rock pillar under coupled thermo-mechanical loading. The code FRACOD was used for simulating the fracture initiation and propagation processes with its boundary tractions reflecting the effects of the initial and redistributed thermomechanical stresses in the domain of interest at multiple excavation and heating steps were produced by a special algorithm of stress inversion, based on resultant thermo-mechanical stress fields at each excavation and heat loading step by a FEM code without considering fracturing processes. This hybrid approach can take the advantages of both types of numerical methods and avoids their shortcomings for fracturing process simulation and domain effects, respectively. In this paper, we present the hybrid approach for the stress, displacements, and fracturing processes at sequential excavation and heating steps of the in situ heater test as a predictive modelling, the formulation of the fracturing models and the predictive results. Two sections of borehole depth, 0.5 m and 1.5 m below the tunnel floor are considered. The pillar area is modelled with the FRACOD and the stress field produced by excavation and heating is transferred with corresponding boundary stresses. From the modelling results, the degree of fracturing and damage are evaluated for 120 days of heating. Dominated shear fracturing in the vicinity of the central pillar was observed from the models at both sections, but spalled area appears to be limited. Based on the modelling results, a sensitivity study for the effect of pre-existing fractures in the vicinity of the holes is also conducted, and the initiation and evolution of EDZ around the deposition holes are investigated using this particular numerical technique.

• Computers and Concrete
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• v.18 no.6
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• pp.1135-1151
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• 2016

For investigating the effect of the pre-existing joints on the initiation pattern of hydraulic fractures, the numerical simulation of circular holes under internal hydraulic pressure with a different pattern of the joint distributions are conducted by using a finite element code, FRANC2D. The pattern of hydraulic fracturing initiation are scrutinized with changing the values of the joint length, joint offset angle. The hydraulic pressures with 70% of the peak value of borehole wall breakout pressure are applied at the similar models. The simulation results suggest that the opening-mode fracture initiated from the joint tip and propagated toward the borehole for critical values of ligament angle and joint offset angle. At these critical values, the crack grow length is influenced by joint ligament length. When the ligament length is less than 3 times the borehole diameter the crack growth length increases monotonically with increasing joint length. The opening-mode fracture disappears at the joint tip as the ligament length increases.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.14 no.2
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• pp.195-202
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• 2018

Many laboratory experiments on crack propagation under uniaxial loading and biaxial loading have been conducted in the past using transparent materials such as resin, polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA), etc. However, propagation behaviors of three-dimensional (3D) cracks in rock or rock-like materials under tri-axial loading are often considerably different. In this study, a series of true tri-axial loading tests on the rock-like material with two semi-ellipse pre-existing cracks were performed in laboratory to investigate the acoustic emission (AE) characteristics and propagation characteristics of 3D crack groups influenced by intermediate principal stress. Compared with previous experiments under uniaxial loading and biaxial loading, the tests under true tri-axial loading showed that shear cracks, anti-wing cracks and secondary cracks were the main failure mechanisms, and the initiation and propagation of tensile cracks were limited. Shear cracks propagated in the direction parallel to pre-existing crack plane. With the increase of intermediate principal stress, the critical stress of crack initiation increased gradually, and secondary shear cracks may no longer coalesce in the rock bridge. Crack aperture decreased with the increase of intermediate principal stress, and the failure is dominated by shear fracturing. There are two stages of fracture development: stable propagation stage and unstable failure stage. The AE events occurred in a zone parallel to pre-existing crack plane, and the AE zone increased gradually with the increase of intermediate principal stress, eventually forming obvious shear rupture planes. This shows that shear cracks initiated and propagated in the pre-existing crack direction, forming a shear rupture plane inside the specimens. The paths of fracturing inside the specimens were observed using the Computerized Tomography (CT) scanning and reconstruction.

• Journal of Korean Tunnelling and Underground Space Association
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• v.4 no.1
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• pp.57-70
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• 2002

Since early in the 90's, the need for construction of underground rock structures such as long and large section traffic tunnel, energy storage cavern, industrial facility, etc. has been largely increased because the Korean territory is not wide and about 65 % of the land consists of mountainous region. The initial rock stress measurement has been widely conducted to provide the quantitative information on the stress state of engineering site at the design stage of underground rock structures. Among the diverse methods developed for measuring rock stress, hydraulic fracturing test is most popularly used because it is applicable at pre-construction stage and has no limit in testing depth. In this paper, the characteristics of initial rock stress state in mountainous region were studied on the basis of the in-situ hydraulic fracturing stress measurement results from the 60 test boreholes in various parts of Korea.

• 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.

• Computers and Concrete
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• v.25 no.2
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• pp.145-154
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• 2020

For the influence of the propagation law of stress wave at the coal-rock interface during the pre-blasting of the top coal in top coal mining, the ANSYS-LS/DYNA fluid-solid coupling algorithm was used to numerical calculation and the life-death element method was used to simulate the propagation of explosion cracks. The equation of the crushing zone and the fracturing zone were derived. The results were calculated and showed that the crushing radius is 14.6 cm and the fracturing radius is 35.8 cm. With the increase of the angles between the borehole and the coal-rock interface, the vibration velocity of the coal particles and the rock particles at the interface decreases gradually, and the transmission coefficient of the stress wave from the coal mass into the rock mass decreases gradually. When the angle between the borehole and the coal-rock interface is 0°, the overall crushing degree is about 11% and up to the largest. With the increase of the distance from the charge to the coal-rock interface, the stress wave transmission coefficient and the crushing degree of the coal-rock are gradually decreased. At the distance of 50 cm, the crushing degree of the coal-rock reached the maximum of approximately 12.3%.

• Journal of Korean Tunnelling and Underground Space Association
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• v.3 no.1
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• pp.51-62
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• 2001

In-situ stress measurement using AE (Acoustic Emission) and DRA (Deformation Rate Analysis) is usually carried out under uniaxial loading in the laboratory and it consumes delay time from drilling to testing. Therefore, it should be considered how the lateral stress and delay time influence on the test results for the in-situ stress determination. As the delay time increased, the accuracy of estimating the pre-stress decreased. The pre-stress of the specimen loaded only axially was determined within an error of less than 9% (using AE) and 4% (using DRA). And the specimen on which axial pre-stress and the confining pressure were loaded had an error of less than 17% (using AE) and 14% (using DRA). The results of AE and DRA for field specimens were very similar with each other but smaller than those of hydraulic fracturing method.