• Geosystem Engineering
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• v.21 no.6
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• pp.326-334
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• 2018

Underground water-sealed gas storage caverns have become the primary method for strategic storage of LPG. Previous studies of excavation blasting effects on large-scale underground water-sealed gas storage caverns are rare at home and abroad. In this paper, the blasting excavation for underground water-sealed propane storage caverns in Yantai was introduced and field tests of blasting vibration were carried out. Field test data showed that the horizontal radial velocity had a major controlling effect in the blasting vibration and frequencies would not cause the vibration velocity concentration effects. In terms of the influence of blasting vibration on adjacent caverns, the dynamic finite element model in LS-DYNA soft was established, whose reliability was verified by field test data. The numerical results indicated the near-blasting side was primary zone for the structural failure and tensile failure tended to occur in the middle of the curved wall on the near-blasting side. Meanwhile, the safety criterions for adjacent caverns based on stress wave theory and according to statistic relationship between peak effective tensile stress and peak particle velocities were obtained, respectively. Finally, with Safety Regulations for Blasting in China (GB6722-2014) taken into account, a final safety criterion was proposed.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.86 no.6
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• pp.779-791
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• 2023

Long-termly used in water supply, an underground concrete pipe is easily subjected to the coupled action of pressure loading and flowing water, which can cause the chemo-mechanical damage of the pipe, resulting in its premature failure and lifetime reduction. Based on the leaching characteristics and damage mechanism of concrete pipe, this paper proposes a coupled chemo-mechanical damage and failure model of underground concrete pipe for water supply, including a calcium leaching model, mechanical damage equation and a failure criterion. By using the model, a numerical simulation is performed to analyze the failure process of underground concrete pipe, such as the time-varying calcium concentration in concrete, the thickness variation of pipe wall, the evolution of chemo-mechanical damage, the distribution of concrete stress on the pipe and the lifetime of the pipe. Results show that, the failure of the pipe is a coupled chemo-mechanical damage process companied with calcium leaching. During its damage and failure, the concentrations of calcium phase in concrete decrease obviously with the time, and it can cause an increase in the chemo-mechanical damage of the pipe, while the leaching and abrasion induced by flowing water can lead to the boundary movement and wall thickness reduction of the pipe, and it results in the stress redistribution on the pipe section, a premature failure and lifetime reduction of the pipe.

• Tunnel and Underground Space
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• v.17 no.4
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• pp.311-321
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• 2007

Failure of underground structures in hard rocks is a function of the in-situ stress, the intact rock strength and the distribution of fractures in the rock mass. At highly stressed regime, brittle failure is often observed due to excavation-induced stress. The characteristics of brittle failure are classified as failure grade, failure initiation stress, extent of failure and depth of failure. For safety construction of underground structures, these characteristics of brittle failure with stress conditions should be understood. In this study we evaluated the relationship between the extent and depth of failure with stress conditions for failure happened model specimens through true triaxial model experiments. The extent and depth of failure were determined using visual observation and computed tomography (CT). The results indicate that the depth of failure was affected by differential stress perpendicular to the axis of tunnel. However the extent of failure was irrelevant to the stress conditions.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.12 no.2
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• pp.103-111
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• 2002

The thermally insulated underground pipelines have been used for district heating system. The sensor wire embedded in the insulation was used for monitoring the insulating resistance between the sensor wire and the pipe. The resistance measurement system detects corrosion of steel pipe under insulation. The corrosion and stress corrosion cracking(SCC) characteristics of sensor wire in synthetic ground water were investigated using the electrochemical methods and constant load SCC tests. The polarization tests were used to study the electrochemical behavior of sensor wire. The sensor wire was passivated at temperatures ranging from 25 to $95^{\circ}C$. However, the applied sensing current larger than passive current resulted in breakdown of passive film. The constant load SCC tests were performed to investigate the effects of applied current and load on the fracture behavior. Stress-corrosion cracks initiated at pits that were produced by sensing current. The growth of the pit involves a tunnelling mechanism, which leads to ductile fracture.

• Tunnel and Underground Space
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• v.12 no.4
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• pp.248-258
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• 2002

The sixth underground pumped powerhouse cavern is now under construction in Korea. For the stability analysis for the caverns of the five underground powerhouses, finite element method was used. For the analysis, in-situ rock stress were measured by overcoring method. The stress measurement showed that initial horizontal to vertical stress ratio was 1.07-1.32 in low powerhouse sites. Rock mass strength and elasticity were assumed from rock core properties through engineering processes. So the ratio of input elasticity fur the analysis were about 0.16-0.55 to rock core elasticity. In most of the analysis, elasto-plastic condition with Mohr-Coulomb failure criteria were applied. But in one case, viscoelastic condition was applied, too. The input cohesion and internal friction angle were approximately 0.12-0.22, 0.6-0.87 to rock core strength parameters, respectively.

• Tunnel and Underground Space
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• v.29 no.1
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• pp.64-74
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• 2019

Behavior of a rock block consisting of rock joints during excavation of an underground opening is an important factor for the mechanical stability of the opening. In this study, the behavior of a rock block under different geostatic stress and joint property conditions was analyzed quantitatively. The behavior of the rock block analyzed by 3DEC numerical analysis was compared with that of the theoretical calculation, and the error between the theoretical value and the numerical analysis result was analyzed under various geostatic stress and joint property conditions. The result of the stability analysis of a rock block showed less than 5% of error with numerical simulation result, which verified the applicability of the purposed analytic solution.

• Tunnel and Underground Space
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• v.32 no.6
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• pp.598-610
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• 2022

Avoiding a fault zone would be a best practice for safety in underground construction, which is only sometimes possible because of many restrictions and other field conditions. For instance, there is an ongoing conception of Korea-Japan subsea tunnels that inevitably cross a massive fault system in the Korea Strait. Therefore it was deemed necessary to find an efficient way of predicting the likely behaviour of underground structures under fault slip. This paper presents the findings from simple numerical analysis for investigating the stress induced at a normal fault with a dip of 45 degrees. We used a boundary element software that assumed constant displacement discontinuity, which allowed the displacement to be estimated separately at both the fault's hangingwall and footwall sides. The results suggested that a principal stress rotation of 45 degrees occurred at the edges of the fault during the slip, which was in agreement with the phenomenon for fault plane suggested in the body of literature. A simple numerical procedure presented in this paper could be adopted to investigate other fault-related issues associated with underground structure construction.

• Journal of Environmental Science International
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• v.31 no.3
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• pp.219-226
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• 2022

This study was conducted to investigate the response of the human body to stress induced by wall recording of subway stations in the city center. The experiment was conducted as a simulation exercise, and six images were selected and produced based on Subway Line 2, a representative underground space in Seoul. The study participants included 24 male and female college students. A three-minute experiment was conducted, during which the participants were shown the control image and green wall image once each. To measure psychological status, the following measurement indicators were used: Semantic Differential, Positive Affect and Negative Affect Schedule and State-Trait Anxiety Inventory. Physiological changes were investigated by tracking participants' heart rate and blood pressure. Results showed that parasympathetic and sympathetic nerves were activated in the presence of the green wall in the subway station. The psychological evaluation analysis revealed that negative affect toward underground space decreased, while positive affect increased. This study found that the green wall in subway stations has a stable effect on the human body, both psychologically and physiologically. In the future, green walls in underground spaces can be used to reduce psychological stress and increase physiological relaxation.

• Proceedings of the Korean Geotechical Society Conference
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• 1996.10a
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• pp.61-70
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• 1996

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.33 no.6
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• pp.605-618
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• 2001

For the mechanical stability assessment of a deep underground high-level waste repository. computer simulations using FLAC3D were carried out and important parameters including stress ratio, depth, tunnel size, joint spacing, and joint properties were chosen from sensitivity analysis. The main effect as well as the interaction effect between the important parameters could be investigated effectively using fractional factorial design . In order to analyze the stability of the disposal tunnel and deposition hole in a discontinuous rock mass, different modelings were performed under different conditions using 3DEC and the influence of joint distribution and properties, rock properties and stress ratio could be determined. From the three dimensional modelings, it was concluded that the conceptual repository design was mechanically stable even in a discontinuous rock mass.