• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.34 no.6
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• pp.697-726
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• 2023

Brittleness as an important property of rock plays a crucial role both in the failure process of intact rock and rock mass response to excavation in engineering geological and geotechnical projects. Generally, rock brittleness indices are calculated from the mechanical properties of rocks such as uniaxial compressive strength, tensile strength and modulus of elasticity. These properties are generally determined from complicated, expensive and time-consuming tests in laboratory. For this reason, in the present research, an attempt has been made to predict the rock brittleness indices from simple, inexpensive, and quick laboratory test results namely dry unit weight, porosity, slake-durability index, P-wave velocity, Schmidt rebound hardness, and point load strength index using multiple linear regression, exponential regression, support vector machine (SVM) with various kernels, generating fuzzy inference system, and regression tree ensemble (RTE) with boosting framework. So, this could be considered as an innovation for the present research. For this purpose, the number of 39 rock samples including five igneous, twenty-six sedimentary, and eight metamorphic were collected from different regions of Iran. Mineralogical, physical and mechanical properties as well as five well known rock brittleness indices (i.e., B₁, B₂, B₃, B₄, and B₅) were measured for the selected rock samples before application of the above-mentioned machine learning techniques. The performance of the developed models was evaluated based on several statistical metrics such as mean square error, relative absolute error, root relative absolute error, determination coefficients, variance account for, mean absolute percentage error and standard deviation of the error. The comparison of the obtained results revealed that among the studied methods, SVM is the most suitable one for predicting B₁, B₂ and B₅, while RTE predicts B₃ and B₄ better than other methods.

• Tunnel and Underground Space
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• v.22 no.3
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• pp.181-187
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• 2012

Many researches on disaster prevention using computer simulation methods can be performed to minimize the damage of property and to protect human life. Discontinuous deformation analysis (DDA) is a new computer simulation method to analyze the behavior of discontinuous rock masses. Since most rock slope problems are 3-dimensional in nature, 2-dimensional deformation analysis has limited application. In this study, the basic principles of 3-dimensional discontinuous deformation analysis are described. The newly developed 3-dimensional discontinuous deformation analysis method is proposed as the computer simulation method for discontinuous rock masses. Then, the failure behavior of rock slopes are simulated using 3-dimensional discontinuous deformation analysis. The simulation results are compared and examined with the failure behavior at the rock slopes. The results show the applicability of 3-dimensional discontinuous deformation analysis to analyze the deformation and failure mechanisms of rock slopes.

• Tunnel and Underground Space
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• v.9 no.4
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• pp.315-327
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• 1999

Rock fracture mechanics has been widely applied to blasting, hydraulic fracturing, rock slope and many other practical problems in rock engineering. But a measuring method for the fracture toughness of rock, one of the mort important parameters in fracture mechanics as an intrinsic property of rock, has not been yet well established. To obtain mode I rock fracture toughness, the more favorable disc-typed specimens such as CCNBD, SCB, chevron-notched SCB and BDT were used in this study. Rock fracture toughness under mixed-mode and mode II conditions was measured by using the STCA applied to the CCNBD specimen. Size effects such as specimen thickness, diameter and notch length on fracture toughness were investigated. From the mixed-mode results, fracture envelops were obtained by applying various regression curves. The mixed-mode results were also compared with three mixed-mode failure criteria. In each fracture toughness test, acoustic emission was measured to get the data for determining the load levels of different crack propagation patterns.

• The Journal of Engineering Geology
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• v.27 no.3
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• pp.267-274
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• 2017

Behavior of rock mass depend on the mechanical properties of intact rock and geometrical property of discontinuity distributed in rock mass. In case of rock slope, particularly, location of slope failure surface and behavior after failure are changed due to discontinuities. In this study, two 3D slope stability analysis methods were developed for two different failure types which are circular failure and planar failure, considering that failure type of rock slope is dependent on scale of discontinuity which was then applied to real rock slope to review the applicability. In case of circular failure, stable condition was maintained in natural dry condition, which however became unstable when the moisture content of the surface was increased by rainfall. In case of planar failure, rock slope become more unstable comparing to dry condition which is attributable to decrease in friction angle of discontinuity surface due to rainfall. Viewing analysis result above, analysis method proved to have well incorporated the phenomenon occurred on real slope from the analysis result, demonstrating its applicability to reviewing the slope stability as well as to maintaining the slope.

• 한국터널공학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2005.04a
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• pp.348-358
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• 2005

Although the evaluation of the mechanical properties and behavior of discontinuous rock masses is very important for the design of underground openings, it has always been considered the most difficult problem. One of the difficulties in describing the rock mass behavior is assigning the appropriate constitutive model. This limitation may be overcome with the progress in discrete element software such as PFC, which does not need the user to prescribe a constitutive model for rock mass. Instead, the micro-scale properties of the intact rock and joints are defined and the macro-scale response results from those properties and the geometry of the problem. In this paper, a $30m{\times}30m{\times}30m$ jointed rock mass of road tunnel site was analyzed. A discrete fracture network was developed from the joint geometry obtained from core logging and surface survey. Using the discontinuities geometry from the DFN model, PFC simulations were carried out, starting with the intact rock and systematically adding the joints and the stress-strain response was recorded for each case. With the stress-strain response curves, the mechanical properties of discontinuous rock masses were determined and compared to the results of empirical methods such as RMR, Q and GSI. The values of Young's modulus, Poisson's ratio and peak strength are almost similar from PFC model and Empirical methods. As expected, the presence of joints had a pronounced effect on mechanical properties of the rock mass. More importantly, the mechanical response of the PFC model was not determined by a user specified constitutive model.

• Tunnel and Underground Space
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• v.9 no.1
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• pp.27-35
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• 1999

The characteristics of heat conduction for the heat source boundary like an arch shape cavern are different from those for the semi-infinite or circular boundary which can be driven theoretically. A new form of transient heat conduction equation in rock mass around the arch shape cavern is evaluated with analyzing the pattern of the rock temperature distribution measured at the cold storage pilot plant. The new equation, which is driven by adopting a shape function, $SF=\sqrt{logx_0/log(x_0+x)}$ to the solution for a semi-infinite boundary, has the semi-radial form of temperature variation with distance. And, thermal properties of rock mass are estimated by comparing the rock temperature distributions by this equation with those by measurement. Thermal conductivity and specific heat of rock mass are estimated as giving the difference of 20~25% compared to those of laboratory scale. This difference seems to be caused by discontinuity like joint and water content in rock mass.

• Journal of the Korean Mathematical Society
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• v.56 no.3
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• pp.645-667
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• 2019

It has been little known when an Artinian point quotient has the strong Lefschetz property. In this paper, we find the Artinian point star configuration quotient having the strong Lefschetz property. We prove that if ${\mathbb{X}}$ is a star configuration in ${\mathbb{P}}^2$ of type s defined by forms (a-quadratic forms and (s - a)-linear forms) and ${\mathbb{Y}}$ is a star configuration in ${\mathbb{P}}^2$ of type t defined by forms (b-quadratic forms and (t - b)-linear forms) for $b=deg({\mathbb{X}})$ or $deg({\mathbb{X}})-1$, then the Artinian ring $R/(I{\mathbb_{X}}+I{\mathbb_{Y}})$ has the strong Lefschetz property. We also show that if ${\mathbb{X}}$ is a set of (n+ 1)-general points in ${\mathbb{P}}^n$, then the Artinian quotient A of a coordinate ring of ${\mathbb{X}}$ has the strong Lefschetz property.

• Tunnel and Underground Space
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• v.2 no.2
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• pp.212-223
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• 1992

The distinct element method(DEM) si well suited to the kinematic analysis of blocky rock masses. Two distinctive problems, a rock avalache and tunnel in jointed rock masses, are chosen to apply the DEM which is based on perfectly rigid behaviour of blocks. Investigated for both problems are the effects of the input parameters such as contact stiffnesses, friction coefficient and damping property. Using various types of models of the avalanche and tunne, an extensive parametric study is done to gain experiences in the method, and then to alleviate difficulties in determining parameter values suitable for a given problem. The coefficient of frictio has significant effects on all aspects of avalanche motion(travel distance, velocity and travel time), while the stiffnesses affect the rebounding and jumping motions after collision. The motion predicted by the models having single and mutiple blocks agrees well to the observations reported on the actual avalache. For the tunnel problem, the behaviour of the key block in an example tunnel is compared by testing values of the input parameters. The stability of the tunnel is dependent primarily on the friction coefficient, while the stiffness and damping properties influence the block velocity. The kinematic stability of a tunnel for underground unclear waste repository is analyzed using the joint geometry data(orientation, spacing and persistence) occurred in a tailrace tunnel. Allowing a small deviation to the mean orientation results in different modes of failure of the rock blocks around the tunnel. Of all parameters tested, the most important to the stability of the tunnel in blocky rock masses are the geometry of the blocks generated by mapping the joint and tunnel surfaces in 3-dimensions and also the friction coefficient of the joints particularly for the stability of the side walls.

• Tunnel and Underground Space
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• v.17 no.1 s.66
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• pp.43-55
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• 2007

An underground research tunnel, KURT, was constructed at Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute, for various in situ validation experiments related to the development of a high-level radioactive waste disposal system. KURT, which has length of 255 m (access tunnel 180 m and research modules 75 m) and size of $6m{\times}6m$ was excavated in a cryatalline rock mass. In the KURT project, different rock mechanics studies had been carried out during the concept design, site characterization, detailed design, and construction stages. From the geophysical survey, borehole investigation, and rock property tests in laboratory and in situ, the rock and rock mass properties required for the mechanicsl stability analysis of KURT could be achieved and used for the input parameters of computer simulations. In this paper, important results from the rock mechanics studies at KURT and the three-dimensional mechanical stability analysis will be introduced.

• The Journal of Engineering Geology
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• v.7 no.1
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• pp.53-62
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• 1997

Fracture mechanics properties of rock materials can he applied to predict the distribution of natural fractures in rock masses, and also to assess the safety of rock slopes and underground structures. In this study, rock fracture toughness and other fracture rrechanics properties of sorne lithologies showing apparently rock-property-controlled distribution of natural fractures were measured. Propagation behaviors of natural and experirnental fractures were also characterized both qualitatively and quantitatively, in terns of the propagation types and sorne statistical parameters. It was concluded that the application of fracture mechanics theories to the ge6logic materials should be based on the geological background and evidences.