• Tunnel and Underground Space
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• v.10 no.2
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• pp.249-256
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• 2000

According to the industrial restructuring in the late 1980's, most domestic mines have been shutdown or suspended in operation. The closed underground excavation caverns remain in their abandoned conditions, and they will potentially cause environmental hazards. To evaluate the feasibility of the utilization of the abandoned caverns, the foreign crises were studied. As a result, we proposed several possible examples including underground storage cavern fur food products, underground compressed air energy system(CAES), and underground repository (or incineration plant) of industrial wastes. Among them, the underground waste repositories are most probable to be seen in Korea in the near future. For this, the study in rock engineering aspects should be conducted, which will include the establishment of support system and safety measure of the abandoned underground excavation caverns.

• The Journal of Engineering Geology
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• v.33 no.4
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• pp.737-753
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• 2023

Abandoned mines represent unused space resulting from resource use and changes in industrial environments. Efforts are underway to repurpose such underground spaces, leveraging their unique attributes of temperature stability, shading, and security. This study aimed to assess the feasibility of operating high-demand data centers and public sports facilities as potential recycling options for abandoned mine spaces. The status of data centers located in abandoned mines abroad was examined, including their operational technology capitalizing on the advantages of underground spaces. Considering the varying sizes of underground spaces in different types of abandoned mine in South Korea, the suitability of installing facilities for 12 different sports was evaluated for potential contributions to the health and welfare of local residents. The utilization of abandoned mine spaces as data centers and public sports facilities is expected to not only recycle industrial heritage but also to allow new development opportunities for local communities.

• Proceedings of the KSRS Conference
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• v.2
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• pp.728-731
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• 2006

Ground subsidence near abandoned underground coal mines has become a serious social problem in Korea. The purpose of this study is to perform a comparative analysis between the ground subsidence area and the electrical resistivity measured by field survey at Samcheok City. A raster database composed of ground subsidence areas and electrical resistivity data was constructed for GIS. To analyze correlation between the two constructed raster datasets, we used a frequency ratio model. The results show that low and high electrical resistivity anomaly zones coincide with the existing subsidence areas. We infer that the high anomaly zone means saturated and low anomaly zone means vacant. It suggests that electrical resistivity might be a useful factor for analyzing ground subsidence hazard zone.

• Tunnel and Underground Space
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• v.26 no.6
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• pp.455-465
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• 2016

The collapse of underground mine development void for mineral resources can cause the subsidence of ground surface. In order to prevent the subsidence of ground, data such as maps or pictures of past mining site is important information for current mine reclamation works. In particular, mine subsidence management was based on mining maps and pictures. The process of the mining area surveys, safety evaluation, and ground reinforcement are normally possible with information such as maps and pictures in past mining. During the Japanese colonial period and 1960's, a lot of mines were developed in Korea indiscriminately. However, mining information at that time is limited to use. In the future, mining information will become even more rare. MIRECO intends to establish a realistic alternative solution. In this study, the basic numerical information of developed mine tunnels in Korea is statistically reviewed, and advanced underground cavity measuring technology was studied. 4,473 mine tunnel opening data of 1,784 abandoned mines in korea were collected and sorted. As a result of the analysis, the average value of small mine tunnel openings in Korea was 1.982 m in height and 1.959 m in width. The mean value of shape factor was analyzed as 0.485. The summary of these numerical mine data will be helpful for understanding and researching Korean abandoned mines. Therefore, the development of measurement technology for abandoned mine cavities and tunnels is expected to facilitate more effective mine subsidence management works in Korea.

• Journal of the Korean earth science society
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• v.34 no.3
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• pp.195-208
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• 2013

We employed electrical resistivity and optical borehole imaging methods to identify underground cavities and determine ground subsidence rate at the study area affected by land subsidence due to abandoned underground mines. At the study site 1, the anomalous zones of low resistivity ranging between 100 ohm-meter and 150 ohm-meter were observed and confirmed as an abandoned underground mine by subsequent borehole drilling and optical borehole imaging. Although the electrical resistivity survey was unavailable due to the paved surface of the study site 2, we were able to locate another abandoned underground mine with the collapsed mine shaft based on the distribution of the ore veins and confirmed it with borehole drilling. In addition, we measured vertical displacements of underground features indicating underground subsidence by conducting optical borehole imaging 6 times over a period of 43 days at the study site 2. The displacement magnitude at the deep segment caused by subsidence appeared to be 3 times larger than those at the shallow segment. Similarly, the displacement duration at the deep segment was 4 times longer than those at the shallow segment. Therefore, the combination of electrical resistivity and optical borehole imaging methods can be effectively applicable to detect and monitor ground subsidence caused by underground cavities.

• Tunnel and Underground Space
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• v.13 no.1
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• pp.1-5
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• 2003

The United States Antarctic program (USAP) through its principal Support Contractor Raytheon polar Services Co. (RPSC), has recently finished a 3 years projects, almost 936m length of underground utility tunnels at Amundsen-Scott station. It accommodates the piping that conveys fresh water from current well sites, as well as waste water to repositories in abandoned wells. The under snow tunnels allow year-round access for system operations and maintenance.

• Tunnel and Underground Space
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• v.17 no.4
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• pp.255-265
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• 2007

As the mechanism and effect range of subsidence are altered according to the various conditions (the ground condition, the earth pressure, the geometric condition of underground cavity and the structure load), the analysis and prediction of subsidence in abandoned mining area are very difficult. Also, as the geological characteristics and the mining methods are differed in each mines, the application of the pre-existing reinforcements without improvement has a lot of difficulties and limits. In this study, the various underground investigation such as long-depth core drilling, seismic tomography and BIPS (borehole image processing system) were performed, the distribution of underground cavity and coal seam and rock relaxation condition were analyzed. And we predicted the type of subsidence and estimated the subsidence by theories of mining subsidence. With these results, we analyzed the mechanism of subsidence occurrence in the research object area. Finally, we improved existing methods which were applied to the abandoned mining area and also we established the rational reinforcement for the ground and structure foundation against each subsidence cause.

• Tunnel and Underground Space
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• v.14 no.5
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• pp.305-317
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• 2004

Due to the steep and narrow characteristic of domestic coal beds, the slant chute caving or sub-level caving method have been mainly adopted in Korea, whereas the long-wall mining has been widely used all around world. However, the slant chute caving or sub-level caving method have disadvantage of not giving much information on the scale and characteristic of abandoned mines. Hence, those information on the abandoned mines in Korea are not easily available. In this study, based on the characteristic investigation of the domestic mining methods, the geological survey and safety analysis were carried out for Donghae highway section 2. Finally, the optimum ground reinforcement methods for that site were selected.

• Journal of Korean Tunnelling and Underground Space Association
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• v.2 no.2
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• pp.62-71
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• 2000

The abandoned mines causing settlement of the surface above and collapse of the cavities are the major influencing factor on the stability of the nearby underground structures. To prevent the harmful effect, the backfill methods are commonly applied to the cavities although the design criteria and the analysis method are not properly addressed in some cases. An approximate analytical method together with the numerical technique is considered in this study to simulate the gradual deterioration of the rock masses around the cavities and, therefore, the influential zone to the underground structures passing through the cavities. Also considered in this study is the backfill effect on the stability of the rock masses around the cavities. Specifically, the incomplete backfill effect is compared with that of the idealized backfill method by adopting elasto-plastic analysis involving a strain softening material law.

• Journal of the Korean GEO-environmental Society
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• v.4 no.2
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• pp.15-25
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• 2003

Time Domain Refletometry, or TDR, is a remote sensing electrical measurement technique that has been used for many years to determine the spatial location and nature of various objects, especially in the United States of America and Australia at mining industry. Since early on 1990, the TDR techniques have been applied to the geotechnical engineering such as : deformation measurement of rock slope and landslide, monitoring of ground water content and ground water level change, investigation of ground contamination and its movement. The first application of this technique, in 1996, to the domestic area is to determine the possibility of ground settlement caused by subsidence from abandoned underground mines at the Tongri and Gosari in Gangwon-d. In this paper, through the results of analysed deformation data between conventional measurements and the TDR, it was concluded that the TDR technique is a useful instrumentation method for the prediction of ground deformation.