• Proceedings of the Korean Geotechical Society Conference
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• 1998.05a
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• pp.35-81
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• 1998

Distinct Element Method(DEM) has a great advantage to model the discontinuous behaviour of jointed rock masses such as rotation, sliding, and separation of rock blocks. Geometrical data of joints by a field monitoring is not enough to model the jointed rock mass though the results of DE analysis for the jointed rock mass is most sensitive to the distributional properties of joints. Also, it is important to use a properly joint law in evaluating the stability of a jointed rock mass because the joint is considered as the contact between blocks in DEM. In this study, a stochastic modelling technique is developed and the dilatant rock joint is numerically modelled in order to consider th geometrical and mechanical properties of joints in DE analysis. The stochastic modelling technique provides a assemblage of rock blocks by reproducing the joint distribution from insufficient joint data. Numerical Modelling of joint dilatancy in a edge-edge contact of DEM enable to consider not only mechanical properties but also various boundary conditions of joint. Preprocess Procedure for a stochastic DE model is composed of a statistical process of raw data of joints, a joint generation, and a block boundary generation. This stochastic DE model is used to analyze the effect of deviations of geometrical joint parameters on .the behaviour of jointed rock masses. This modelling method may be one tool for the consistency of DE analysis because it keeps the objectivity of the numerical model. In the joint constitutive law with a dilatancy, the normal and shear behaviour of a joint are fully coupled due to dilatation. It is easy to quantify the input Parameters used in the joint law from laboratory tests. The boundary effect on the behaviour of a joint is verified from shear tests under CNL and CNS using the numerical model of a single joint. The numerical model developed is applied to jointed rock masses to evaluate the effect of joint dilation on tunnel stability.

• Tunnel and Underground Space
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• v.25 no.3
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• pp.255-263
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• 2015

Explosive blasting is a very useful tool for mining and civil engineering applications. It, however, may cause severe environmental hazards on adjacent structures due to blasting impact. Blast engineers try to make optimum blast design to provide efficient performance and to minimize the environmental impact as well. It requires a pre-assessment of the impacts resulting from the blasting operation in design stage. One of the common procedures is to evaluate the proposed blast pattern through a series of test blasting in the field. Another approach is to evaluate the possible environmental effects using the numerical methods. There are a number of input parameters to be prepared for the numerical analysis. Some of them are well understood, while some are not. This paper presents some results of sensitivity analysis of the basic input parameters in numerical modelling of blasting problems so as to provide sound understanding of the parameters and some guidelines for input preparation.

• Tunnel and Underground Space
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• v.7 no.1
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• pp.31-38
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• 1997

Residual shear strength should be taken into consideration as well as peak one when analysing stability of slopes constituted by weathered rock or overconsolidated soils since such materials could be subjected to progressive failure mechanism. When landslide of a slope is related to progressive failure phenomenon, the failure might occur even though shear strength of the slope materials does not reach their residual shear strength over the whole slip surface. Therefore, stability of the slope concerned may be overstimated or underestimated when using only its peak or residual shear srength parameters. Mechanical description for progressive failure phenomenon is given by Bjerrum(1967). In parameters. Mechanical description for progressive failure phenomenon is given by Bjerrum(1967). In this study, his theory has been extended to estimate the distance of failed zone for a plane slope and the results calculated by this extended equatio has been compared with that obtained by numerical modelling using FLAC. In addition, stress state on the slip surface has been, in detail, analysed to understand failure mechanism when a limited progressive failure occurs. Effects of mechanical and hydraulic factors on progressive failure have also been analysed.

• Proceedings of the Korean Geotechical Society Conference
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• 2000.03b
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• pp.133-140
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• 2000

Drilling and blasting method for excavating rock mass is generally used in underground construction; but this technique has some shortcomings. For instance, rock mass damage is inevitable during drilling and blasting, and blast-induced vibration frequently causes some problems. Until now, field measurement method is used to predict the overbreak and vibration; but it has many limitations. Therefore, numerical analysis method is needed to overcome such limitations, and to estimate and predict damage and vibration due to tunnel blasting in the design stage. In this study, damage zone of rock mass due to stoping and contour blasting is compared based on standard tunnel blasting pattern, and the propriety of the standard tunnel blasting pattern is estimated. Then, blasting pattern is optimized so that the damage zone due to sloping blasting with reduced charge is consistent with that due to contour blasting.

• Tunnel and Underground Space
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• v.8 no.1
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• pp.26-36
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• 1998

To assess the groundwater flow near high-level radioactive waste repositories, it is important to understand the effect of coupling among thermal, hydraulic, and mechanical effects. In this paper, detailed mathematical approach to model the groundwater flow near the waste form surrounded by buffer, influenced by decay heat of radioactive waste along with stress change is developed. Two cases(1) before the full expansion of buffer and (2) after the full expansion of buffer are modelled. Based on the mathematical models in this paper, detailed numerical study shall be pursued later.

• The Journal of Engineering Geology
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• v.7 no.2
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• pp.91-99
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• 1997

In general, there are various approaches available in literature to model discontinuous rock masses and engineers are often confused which one to use for designing structures in rock masses. Modelling rock masses can be classified mainly into two approaches. One is discrete modelling of intact rock and discontinuities and the other is the equivalent continuum modelling. In this study five models are selected ;(1) Crack tensor model, (2) Equivalent volume defect model, (3) Damage model, (4) Micro - structure model (Parallel model and Series model), and (5) Homogenization model. Most of these models are mainly concerned with how to define additional strain due to discontinuities over the representative elementary volume (REV) and how to relate the stress field of discontinuities to that acting on the REV. The characteristics of these models are clarified by comparing with results of some laboratory tests.

• Economic and Environmental Geology
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• v.50 no.2
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• pp.85-96
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• 2017

Gold mineralization of Samjeong and Yongjang gold mines in Uichang area shows characteristics of Bonanza-type gold deposits. Ores are mainly developed along the contact parts between quartz vein and arkosic sandstone beds(Fe-rich bed) in sedimentary rock. Electrum, silver sulfide and sulfate minerals are mainly in the ores. On the other hand, gold mineralization is less developed in cherty rock and andesitic rock than arkosic sandstone. The study highlights characteristics of gold precipitation in the deposit on the basis of numerical modelling of the reactions between the assumed hydrothermal ore fluids with multicomponent heterogeneous equilibrium calculations. Aqueous species, gases and minerals, containing electrum are included in the calculations. The reaction result between hydrothermal ore fluids and arkosic sandstone show that pH increasing in the ore-forming fluid would trigger precipitation of quartz, chlorite, sericite, chalcopyrite, galena, pyrite, electrum, actinolite and feldspar. The numerical modelling also illustrates the drastic increase of pH and desulfidation lead to precipitation of electrum. Ag/Au ratios in the ore vary with pH conditions and subsequently precipitation of silver-bearing sulfides such as acanthite and polybasite. The modelling of the reaction between andesitic rock and ore-forming fluid shows that mineral assemblages of the case are analogous to ones of the reaction between arkosic sandstone and fluid except the latter has little portion of electrum. The abovementioned modelling results suggest that gold-silver mineralization is bounded by host rocks at the study area.

• Tunnel and Underground Space
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• v.30 no.6
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• pp.573-590
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• 2020

This study presents the current status of DECOVALEX-2023 project Task G and our research results so far. Task G, named 'Safety ImplicAtions of Fluid Flow, Shear, Thermal and Reaction Processes within Crystalline Rock Fracture NETworks (SAFENET)' aims at developing a numerical method to simulate the fracture creation and propagation, and the coupled thermohydro-mechanical processes in fracture in crystalline rocks. The first research step of Task G is a benchmark simulation, which is designed for research teams to make their modelling codes more robust and verify whether the models can represent an analytical solution for displacements of a single rock fracture. We reproduced the mechanical behavior of rock and embedded single fracture using a three-dimensional grain-based distinct element model for the simulations. In this method, the structure of the rock was represented by an assembly of rigid tetrahedral grains moving independently of each other, and the mechanical interactions at the grains and their contacts were calculated using 3DEC. The simulation results revealed that the stresses induced along the embedded fracture in the model were relatively low compared to those calculated by stress analysis due to stress redistribution and constrained fracture displacements. The fracture normal and shear displacements of the numerical model showed good agreement with the analytical solutions. The numerical model will be enhanced by continuing collaboration and interaction with other research teams of DECOVALEX-2023 Task G and validated using various experiments in a further study.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society for Rock Mechanics Conference
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• 2007.03a
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• pp.130-139
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• 2007

We have carried out numerical compression experiments to estimate the mechanical properties (Mohr-Coulomb and elastic) of corestone-bearing saprolites in Beolgyo area. The studied saprolite, consisting of mechanically much stronger corestone and weaker matrix, is a weathering product of the Precambrian granitic gneiss in the Youngnam massif. Since the saprolite consists of larger corestones with diameter up to 2m, it is impossible to directly measure the mechanical properties by physical experiments. We have measured the mechanical properties of corestone and matrix from naturally occurring saprolite and have used them as a reference for our numerical model. Then, we mixed each material and carried out biaxial compression tests while varying the volume percentage of corestones from 0 to 57%. We found that both cohesion and internal friction angle increase with the volume percentage of corestones while elastic modulus remains constant. We found the results from numerical experiments are in contradiction to what is known from physical experiments using artificial saprolites. This may be due to a possibility that the sharp and discrete nature of interface between corestone and matrix in physical experiments differs from the gradual interfacial nature in numerical modelling and natural saprolites.

• Tunnel and Underground Space
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• v.8 no.4
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• pp.342-350
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• 1998

In this study, fracture network in rock mass was interpreted using borehole wall images obtained by televiewer. The orientation and JRC value of major joint set were evaluated adopting image analysis techniques, of which process were written in macro-program code. As linking JRC to joint stiffness using Barton-Bandis model, fracture network map was produced for application to jointed rock modelling in numerical analysis of underground structure.