• Explosives and Blasting
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• v.24 no.2
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• pp.41-50
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• 2006

Excavation by explosives blasting necessarily involves noise and vibration, which is highly prone to face claims on the environmental and structural aspects from the neighbors. When the blasting carried out in the vicinity of a structure, the effect of blasting vibration on the stability of the structure should be carefully evaluated. In the conventional method of evaluation, an equation for blast vibration is obtained from test blasting which is later used to determine the amount of charge. This method, however, has limitations in use since it does not consider topography and change in ground conditions. In order to overcome the limitations, dynamic numerical analysis is recently used in continuum or discontinuous models, where the topography and the ground conditions can be exactly implemented. In the numerical analysis for tunnels and rock slopes, it is very uncommon to simulate multi-hole blasting. A single-hole blasting pressure is estimated and the equivalent overall pressure at the excavation face is used. This approach based on an ideal case usually does not consider the ground conditions. And this consequently results in errors in calculation. In this presentation of a case study, a new approach of using blast waves obtained in the test blast is proposed. The approach was carried out in order to improve the accuracy in calculating blasting pressure. The stability of a structure in the vicinity of a slope blasting was examined using the newly proposed method.

• Journal of Korean Tunnelling and Underground Space Association
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• v.6 no.4
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• pp.327-343
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• 2004

During tunnel construction, ground failures often occur due to existence of weak zones, such as faults, joints, and cavities, ahead of tunnel face. It is hard to detect effectively weak zones, which can lead underground structure to fail after excavation and before supporting, by using conventional characterization methods. In this study, an enhanced analytical method of predicting weak zones ahead of tunnel face is developed to overcome some problems in the conventional geophysical exploration methods. The analytical method is based on Coulomb's and Gauss' laws with considering the characteristics of electric fields subjected to rock mass. Using the developed method, closed form solutions are obtained to detect a spherical shaped zone and an oriented fault ahead of tunnel face respectively. The analytical results suggest that the presence of weak zones and their sizes, location, and states can be accurately predicted by combining a proper inversion process with resistance measured from several electrodes on the tunnel face. It appears that the skin depth or resistivity in rock mass is affected by the diameter of tunnel face, natural electric potential and noises induced by experimental measurement and spatial distribution of uncertain properties. The developed analytical solution is verified through experimental tests. About 1800 concrete blocks of 5cm by 5cm by 5cm in size are prepared and used to model a joint rock mass around tunnel face. Weak zones are simulated ahead of tunnel face with a material which has relatively higher conductivity than concrete blocks. Experimental results on the model test show a good agreement with analytical results.

• Journal of Korean Tunnelling and Underground Space Association
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• v.20 no.5
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• pp.855-867
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• 2018

When a weak zone exists ahead of tunnel face, the stress in the adjacent area would increase due to the longitudinal arching effect and the stability of the tunnel is affected. Therefore, it is critical to prepare a countermeasure through the investigation of the frontal weakness zone of the excavated face. Although there are several researches to predict the existence of weak zone ahead of tunnel face, such as geophysical exploration, numerical analysis and tunnel support, lack of studies on the relaxation zone depending on the width or distance from the vulnerable area. In this study, the impact of the weak zone on the formation of the relaxation zone was investigated. For this purpose, a series of laboratory test were carried out varying the width of the weak zone and the separation distance between tunnel face and weak zone. In the model test, sand with a water content of 3.8% was used to form a model ground. The model weak zone was constructed with dry sand curtains. The tunnel face was adjusted to allow a sequential excavation of upper and lower half part. load cells were installed on the bottom of the foundation and the tunnel face and measuring instruments for displacement were installed on the surface of the model ground to measure the vertical stress and surface displacements due to tunnel excavation respectively. The test results show that the width of weak zone did not affect the ground settlement while the ground subsidence drastically increased within 0.25D. The vertical stress and horizontal stress increased from 0.5D or less. In addition, the longitudinal arching effect is likely within the 1.0D zone ahead of the tunnel face, which may reduce the vertical stress in the ground following tunneling direction.

• Journal of Korean Tunnelling and Underground Space Association
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• v.19 no.3
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• pp.463-473
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• 2017

Bentonite swells when it comes into contact with water and makes it a viscous fluid. Thus it is widely used in civil engineering works for waterproofing. Utilizing the properties of bentonite, the slurry shield TBM supports excavated face with pressurized slurry as well as transporting excavated muck. When bentonite is in contact with seawater, due to the change of double layer thickness, its expandability and viscosity are lowered. This may cause problems for excavation stability and muck discharge due to the increase of sea water inflow when Slurry TBM is used under sea water conditions. In this study, the change of slurry condition caused by the inflow of sea water during tunnel excavation with Slurry TBM was investigated and a slurry management guideline was proposed. For this purpose, a laboratory test was carried out based on the slurry management criterions applied in the field, and a method applicable to the field where sea water is affected has been proposed.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.20 no.8
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• pp.15-27
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• 2004

Sliding aspects of rock slope, where large-scaled tension cracks are induced during preliminary excavation, have been analyzed. Structure of rock mass is investigated by performing the electrical resistivity survey and the orientations and positions of discontinuities are measured from DOM-drilled core log. Geological evidence far primary failure movement has been detected and clay minerals which possess swelling properties are identified through XRD analysis. Slope stability is examined by considering the orientations of discontinuities and their trace distributions on the cut-face and neighboring natural slope surface. Both orientations and positions of failure-invoking discontinuity planes, traces of which are exposed within the anticipated sliding region, are concerned fur analyzing the preferred sliding directions. Regional sliding vectors are assessed based on the relative positions of potential sliding planes in the boreholes and the general trend of anticipated failure movement of rock slope is also investigated.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.23 no.5
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• pp.29-41
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• 2007

An assesment technique for the quantitative evaluation of tunnel safety during tunnel excavation was newly proposed in this study using displacement measurements. First of all, field measurement guidelines used at tunnel construction sites in Korea and other countries were investigated. It was found out that the criteria of the guidelines were not clear and varied depending on the construction sites. The practical use of field measurement data for the evaluation of tunnel safety was very limited due to uncertainties of the guidelines related to the interpretation of measured data during the excavation. Critical strain concept is introduced in this study for the assesment of tunnel safety during the tunnel excavation. Moreover, the characteristics of tunnel displacements caused by the tunnel excavation were investigated in detail in order to investigate the practical application of the critical strain concept. The total tunnel displacements can be subdivided into three parts: displacements occurring ahead of tunnel face, displacements occurring prior to measurements, and displacements occurring after the installation of instruments. The characteristic of each portion of displacements is analysed in this study. Finally, a general method on the use of the displacement measurement data for the critical strain concept was suggested in the concrete manner, considering the field measurement practice in Korea.

• Journal of Korean Tunnelling and Underground Space Association
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• v.23 no.3
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• pp.133-149
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• 2021

This study aims to report the behavioral mechanism of steel pipe reinforcement grouting, which is being actively used to ensure the stability of the excavation surface during tunnel excavation, based on measurements taken at the actual site. After using a 12 m steel pipe attached with a shape displacement meter and a strain gauge to reinforce the actual tunnel surface, behavioral characteristics were identified by analyzing the measured deformation and stress of the steel pipe. Taking into account that the steel pipes were overlapped every 6 m, the measured data up to 7 m of excavation were used. In addition, the behavioral characteristics of the steel pipe reinforcement according to the difference in strength were also examined by applying steel pipes with different allowable stresses (SGT275 and SGT550). As a result of analyzing the behavior of steel pipes for 7 hours after the first excavation for 1 m and before proceeding with the next excavation, the stress redistribution due to the arching effect caused by the excavation relaxation load was observed. As excavation proceeded by 1 m, the excavated section exhibited the greatest deformation during excavation of 4 to 6 m due to the stress distribution of the three-dimensional relaxation load, and deformation and stress were generated in the steel pipe installed in the ground ahead of the tunnel face. As a result of comparing the behavior of SGT275 steel pipe (yield strength 275 MPa) and SGT550 steel pipe (yield strength 550 MPa), the difference in the amount of deformation was up to 18 times and the stress was up to 12 times; the stronger the steel pipe, the better it was at responding to the relaxation load. In this study, the behavior mechanism of steel pipe reinforcement grouting in response to the arching effect due to the relaxation load was identified based on the measured data during the actual tunnel excavation, and the results were reported.

• Tunnel and Underground Space
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• v.11 no.4
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• pp.289-300
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• 2001

In the design of tunnel, it contains inaccuracy of data, fuzziness of evaluation, observer error and so on. The face observation during tunnel excavation, therefore, plays an important role to raise stability and to reduce supporting cost. This study is carried out to minimize the subjectiveness of observer and to exactly evaluate the natural properties of ground during the face observation. For these purpose, fuzzy set theory and neuro-fuzzy techniques in artificial intelligent techniques are applied to the inference of the RMR value from the observation data. The correlation between original RMR vague and inferred RM $R_{_FU}$ and RM $R_{_NF}$ values from fuzzy set theory and neuro-fuzzy techniques is investigated using 46 data. The results show that good correlation between original RMR value and infected RM $R_{_FU}$ and RM $R_{_NF}$ value is observed when the correlation coefficients are ｜R｜=0.96 and ｜R｜=0.95 respectively. From these results, applicability of fuzzy set theory and neuro-fuzzy techniques to rock mats classification is proved to be sufficiently high enough. enough.

• Proceedings of the Korean Geotechical Society Conference
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• 2004.03b
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• pp.946-951
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• 2004

ITIS is applied to the several tunnel construction sites in Korea. Tunnel construction properties which are acquired from these sites are transferred to information management server(SQL 2000 server)by client application program in real time. Access permission to DB server depends on the user's roles. Some functions which cannot be embodied in SQL Server are serviced through XML and GMS server is used for spatial data based on GIS part. This system is supposed to give engineers the advantages which are not only easy handling of the program and computerized documentation on every information during construction but also analyzing the acquired data in order to predict the structure of ground and rock mass to be excavated later and show the guideline of construction. Neung-Dong tunnel and Mu-Gua express way tunnel are now under construction and with this system they have 3D visualized map of the geology and tunnel geometry and accumulate database of construction information such as tunnel face mapping results, special notes and pictures of construction and 3D monitoring data, all matters on the stability of rock bolts and shotcrete, and so on. Ground settlement prediction program included in ITIS, based on the artificial neural network(ANN) and supported by GIS technology is applying to the subway tunnel. This prediction tool can make it possible to visualize the ground settlement according to the excavation procedures by contouring the calculated result on 3D GIS map and to assess the damage of buildings in the vicinity of construction site caused by ground settlement.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.28 no.7
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• pp.5-16
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• 2012

Soil-nailing is the most popular method of reinforcing for slope stability. In general, two factors are considered as failure modes during the soil-nailing design stages: pullout failure mode and shear failure mode that will occur on the most probable failure plane. In many cases, however, shallow failure can also occur when the ground near the slope face is swept away by the horizontal stress release during the staged top-down excavation. In this paper, an optimized soil-nailing design methodology is proposed by considering the three failure modes mentioned above: pullout failure; shear failure; and shallow failure. The variables to be optimized include the bonded length and number of soil-nailings, and the confining pressure that should be applied at the slope face. The procedure to obtain the optimized design variables is as follows: at first, optimization of soil-nailings, i.e. bonded length and number, against pullout and shear failure modes; and then, optimization of confining pressure at each excavation stage that is needed to prevent shallow failure. Since the two processes are linked with each other, they are repeated until the optimized design variables can be obtained satisfying all the constrained design requirements in both of the two processes.