• Proceedings of the Korean Geotechical Society Conference
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• 2002.03a
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• pp.253-260
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• 2002

Chemical weathering processes related with mineralogical characters and ground water condition are very essential engineering problems in soluble rock masses. Detailed geological mapping were performed and 8 samples were collected from the 2 formations including various rock faces to deduce the possibility of the limestone cavity formation and their mechanism. Petrological descriptions and various petro-mineralogical experiments such as XRD analysis, clay mineral analysis, absorptivity test, impurity analysis were conducted to evaluate the cavity making processes. Laboratory solubility test for rock specimen were also carried out under the strong acid (pH=1) condition. From the experimental data and geological mapping data, it is found that the formation of limestone cavities in limestones are strongly related with geological structures such as beddings, cleavages and the contents of impurities rather than CaCO$_3$contents. In case of dolomites, rock textures, grain size, amounts and types of clay minerals as well as geological structures are major controlling factors of cavity forming processes

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.16 no.6
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• pp.655-667
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• 2018

To evaluate the stability of a rock slope with one pre-exiting vertical crack, this paper performs corresponding probabilistic stability analysis. The existence of cracks is generally ignored in traditional deterministic stability analysis. However, they are widely found in either cohesive soil or rock slopes. The influence of one pre-exiting vertical crack on a rock slope is considered in this study. The safety factor, which is usually adopted to quantity the stability of slopes, is derived through the deterministic computation based on the strength reduction technique. The generalized Hoek-Brown (HB) failure criterion is adopted to characterize the failure of rock masses. Considering high nonlinearity of the limit state function as using nonlinear HB criterion, the multivariate adaptive regression splines (MARS) is used to accurately approximate the implicit limit state function of a rock slope. Then the MARS is integrated with Monte Carlo simulation to implement reliability analysis, and the influences of distribution types, level of uncertainty, and constants on the probability density functions and failure probability are discussed. It is found that distribution types of random variables have little influence on reliability results. The reliability results are affected by a combination of the uncertainty level and the constants. Finally, a reliability-based design figure is provided to evaluate the safety factor of a slope required for a target failure probability.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.12 no.4
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• pp.595-609
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• 2017

Due to high in-situ stress and brittleness of rock mass, the surrounding rock masses of underground caverns are prone to appear splitting failure. In this paper, a kind of loading-unloading variable elastic modulus model has been initially proposed and developed based on energy dissipation principle, and the stress state of elements has been determined by a splitting failure criterion. Then the underground caverns of Dagangshan hydropower station is analyzed using the above model. For comparing with the monitoring results, the entire process of rock splitting failure has been achieved through monitoring the splitting failure on side walls of large-scale caverns in Dagangshan via borehole TV, micro-meter and deformation resistivity instrument. It shows that the maximum depth of splitting area in the downstream sidewall of the main power house is approximately 14 m, which is close to the numerical results, about 12.5 m based on the energy dissipation model. As monitoring result, the calculation indicates that the key point displacement of caverns decreases firstly with the distance from main powerhouse downstream side wall rising, and then increases, because this area gets close to the side wall of main transformer house and another smaller splitting zone formed here. Therefore it is concluded that the energy dissipation model can preferably present deformation and fracture zones in engineering, and be very useful for similar projects.

• Explosives and Blasting
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• v.38 no.3
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• pp.15-29
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• 2020

In this paper the Hoek-Brown (HB) failure criterion is integrated into the Holmquist-Johnson-Cook (HJC) concrete material model to reflect the inherent characteristics of field rock masses in LS-DYNA blast modeling. This is intended to emphasize the distinctive characteristics of field rock masses that usually have many geological discontinuities. The replacement is made only for the static strength part of the HJC material model by using a statistical curve fitting technique, and its procedure is described in detail. An example is also given to illustrate the use of the obtained HJC material model. Computation is performed for a plane strain model of a single-hole blasting on a field limestone by using the combination of the fluid-structure interaction (FSI) technique and the multi-material arbitrary Lagrangian Eulerian (MMALE) method in LS-DYNA.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.21 no.2
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• pp.207-213
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• 2020

Umbrella Arch Method (UAM) often employed in the tunnel construction under poor rock mass conditions in Korea. Insertion of steel pipes at the periphery of the tunnel and infiltration of grouts along the pipes into the rock masses increases tunnel stability. There are two major effects of grouts expected at the tunnel face: 1) increase of face stability by enhancing the frictional resistance of discontinuities and 2) decrease of permeability along the rock masses. Increase of resistance and decrease of permeability requires a certain curing time for the grout. In Korea, we require 24 hours for curing of grout, which means no progress of excavation for 24 hours after infiltration of grouts. This step delays the tunnel construction sequences. To eliminate such inefficiency, we propose MTG (Method for Tunnel construction using Grouting technology), which uses extended length of steel pipes (14 m) compared to conventional pipe roof method (12 m). The merit of MTG is the reduction of curing time. Because of the approximately 2 m extension of the length of steel pipe, blasting can be done after infiltration of grouting. For this paper, we conducted experiments on the shear strength behaviors of grout infilled rock joint with elapsing of curing time and blasting induced vibration. The results show that blasting induced vibration under MTG does not influence the mechanical features of grout material, which indicates no influence on the mechanical behaviors of grout, contributing to the stability of tunnels during excavation. This result indicates that MTG is a cost effective and fast construction method for tunneling in Korea.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.15 no.3
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• pp.161-176
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• 1999

A powerful numerical method that can be used for modeling rock-structure interaction is the Discontinuous Deformation Analysis (D D A) method developed by Shi in 1988. In this method, rock masses are treated as systems of finite and deformable blocks. Large rock mass deformations and block movements are allowed. Although various extensions of the D D A method have been proposed in the literature, the method is not capable of modeling water-block interaction, sequential loading or unloading and rock reinforcement; three features that are needed when modeling surface or underground excavation in fractured rock. This paper presents three new extensions to the D D A method. The extensions consist of hydro-mechanical coupling between rock blocks and steady water flow in fractures, sequential loading or unloading, and rock reinforcement by rockbolts, shotcrete or concrete lining. Examples of application of the D D A method with the new extensions are presented. Simulations of the underground excavation of the \ulcornerUnju Tunnel\ulcorner in Korea were carried out to evaluate the influence of fracture flow, excavation sequence and reinforcement on the tunnel stability. The results of the present study indicate that fracture flow and improper selection of excavation sequence could have a destabilizing effect on the tunnel stability. On the other hand, reinforcement by rockbolts and shotcrete can stabilize the tunnel. It is found that, in general, the D D A program with the three new extensions can now be used as a practical tool in the design of underground structures. In particular, phases of construction (excavation, reinforcement) can now be simulated more realistically.

• Tunnel and Underground Space
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• v.26 no.2
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• pp.131-142
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• 2016

Investigation for rock joints, inspection for rock core, and laboratory tests for rock specimens, in this study, have been performed for identification of the extent and properties of Excavation Damaged Zone in a underground limestone mine, which plans to enlarge the size of openings to improve the production rate. Properties of EDZ and surrounding rock masses have been used numerically for discontinuum analysis, and it is concluded that the effect of EDZ can be increased with increasing the opening size and a blasting pattern of high precision can be suggested for the counterplan.

• Tunnel and Underground Space
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• v.9 no.2
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• pp.149-157
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• 1999

A powerful numerical method that can be used for that purpose is the Discontinuous Deformation Analysis (DDA) method developed by Shi in 1988. In this method, rock masses are treated as systems of finite and deformable blocks. Large rock mass deformations and block movements are allowed. Although various extensions of the DDA method have been proposed in the literature, the method is not capable of modeling water-block interaction that is needed when modeling surface or underground excavation in fractured rock. This paper presents a new extension to the DDA method. The extension consists of hydro-mechanical coupling between rock blocks and water flow in fractures. A example of application of the DDA method with the new extension is presented. The results of the present study indicate that fracture flow could have a destabilizing effect on the tunnel stability.

• Journal of Korean Tunnelling and Underground Space Association
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• v.3 no.2
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• pp.23-32
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• 2001

Rock masses are usually discontinuous in nature, as a result of various geological processes they have underdone and they contain rock joints and bridges. Crack propagation and coalescence processes mainly cause rock failures in tunnels. In this study, we focused on the crack initiation, propagation and coalescence process of rock materials containing two pre-existing open cracks arranged in different geometries. During uniaxial compression, wing crack initiation stress, wing crack propagation angle, and crack coalescence stress of Diastone gypsum and Yeosan Marble specimens were examined. And crack initiation, propagation, and coalescence processes were observed. Shear, tensile and mixed (shear+tensile) types of crack coalescence occurred. To compare the experimental results with Ashby & Hallam model, crack coalescence stress was normalized and it generally agreed with the experimental results.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.10 no.3
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• pp.257-267
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• 2016

Charts are used extensively in slope practical application to meet the need of quick assessment of rock slope design. However, Charts for estimating the shear strength of the rock mass of a slope are considerably limited. In this paper, based on the Hoek-Brown (HB) criterion which is widely used in rock slope engineering, we present charts which can be used to estimate the Mohr-Coulomb (MC) parameters angle of friction ${\phi}$ and cohesion c for given slopes. In order to present the proposed charts, we firstly present the derivation of the theoretical relationships between the MC parameters and ${\sigma}_{ci}/({\gamma}H)$ which is termed the strength ratio (SR). It is found that the values of $c/{\sigma}_{ci}$ and ${\phi}$ of a slope depend only on the magnitude of SR, regardless of the magnitude of the individual parameters ${\sigma}_{ci}$(uniaxial compressive strength), ${\gamma}$(unit weight) and H (slope height). Based on the relationships between the MC parameters and SR, charts are plotted to show the relations between the MC parameters and HB parameters. Using the proposed charts can make a rapid estimation of shear strength of rock masses directly from the HB parameters, slope geometry and rock mass properties for a given slope.