• Tunnel and Underground Space
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• v.15 no.2 s.55
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• pp.119-128
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• 2005

Although the evaluation of the mechanical properties and behavior of jointed rock masses is very important for the design of tunnel and underground openings, it has always been considered the most difficult problem. One of the difficulties in describing the rock mass behavior is the selection of 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. In this paper, a 30\;m\;\times\;30\;m\;\times\;30\;m m jointed rock mass of road tunnel site was analyzed. h 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 jointed rock masses were determined. As expected, the presence of joints had a pronounced effect on mechanical properties of the rock mass. More importantly, getting the mechanical response of the PFC model doesn't require a user specified constitutive model.

• Tunnel and Underground Space
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• v.17 no.2 s.67
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• pp.109-118
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• 2007

The excavation damaged zone (EDZ) is an area around an excavation where in situ rock mass properties, stress condition. displacement. groundwater flow conditions have been altered due to the excavation. Various studies have been carried out on EDZ, but most studies have been focused on the mechanical bahavior of EDZ by in situ experiment. Even though the EDZ could potentially form a high permeable pathway of groundwater flow, only a few studies were performed on the analysis of groundwater flow in EDZ. In this study, the' hydraulic EDZ' was defined as the rock Lone adjacent to the excavation where the hydraulic aperture has been changed due to the excavation. And hydraulic EDZ (hydraulic aperture changed zone) estimated by two-dimensional DEM program was considered in three-dimensional DFN model. From this approach the groundwater flow characteristics corresponding to hydraulic aperture change were examined. Together. a parametric study was performed to examine the boundary conditions that frequently used in DFN analysis such as constant head or constant flux condition. According to the numerical analysis, hydraulic aperture change induced by the hydraulic-mechanical interaction becomes one of the most important factors Influencing the hydraulic behavior of jointed rock masses. And also from this study, we suggest the proper boundary condition in three-dimensional DFN model.

• Tunnel and Underground Space
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• v.31 no.5
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• pp.309-332
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• 2021

Natural barrier systems surrounding the geological repository for the high-level radioactive waste should guarantee the hydraulic performance for preventing or delaying the leakage of radionuclide. In the case of the behavior of a crystalline rock, the hydraulic performance tends to be decided by the existence of discontinuities, so the coupled hydro-mechanical(HM) processes on the discontinuities should be characterized. The discontinuum modelling can describe the complicated behavior of discontinuities including creation, propagation, deformation and slip, so it is appropriate to model the behavior of a crystalline rock. This paper investigated the coupled HM processes in discontinuum modelling such as UDEC, 3DEC, PFC, DDA, FRACOD and TOUGH-UDEC. Block-based discontinuum methods tend to describe the HM processes based on the fluid flow through the discontinuities, and some methods are combined with another numerical tool specialized in hydraulic analysis. Particle-based discontinuum modelling describes the overall HM processes based on the fluid flow among the particles. The discontinuum methods that are currently available have limitations: exclusive simulations for two-dimension, low hydraulic simulation efficiency, fracture-dominated fluid flow and simplified hydraulic analysis, so it could be improper to the modelling the geological repository. Based on the concepts of various discontinuum modelling compiled in this paper, the advanced numerical tools for describing the accurate coupled HM processes of the deep geological repository should be developed.

• Tunnel and Underground Space
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• v.31 no.3
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• pp.145-166
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• 2021

Korea Stress Map database is built by integrating actual data of 1,400 in-situ stress measurements using hydraulic fracturing and overcoring method in South Korea. Korea Stress Map 2020 is presented based on the guideline proposed by World Stress Map Project. As detailed data, stress ratio and maximum horizontal stress direction distribution for each region are also presented. The dominant maximum horizontal stress direction in the Korean Peninsula is from northeast to southeast, and the magnitude of the in-situ stress is relatively distributed. There is some stress heterogeneity caused by local characteristics such as topographical and geological properties. We investigated case studies in which the in-situ stress was affected by mountainous topography, difference in rock quality of fracture zone, presence of mine or underground cavities, and geological structure of fault zone.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.81 no.2
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• pp.243-258
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• 2022

In this paper, tensile behavior of joint filling has been investigated under experimental test and numerical simulation (particle flow code). Two concrete slabs containing semi cylinder hole were prepared. These slabs were attached to each other by glue and one cubic specimen with dimension of 19 cm×15 cm×6 cm was prepared. This sample placed in the universal testing machine where the direct tensile stress can be applied to this specimen by implementing a special type of load transferring device which converts the applied compressive load to that of the tensile during the test. In the present work, two different joint filling thickness i.e., 3 mm and 6 mm were prepared and tested in the laboratory to measure their direct tensile strengths. Concurrent with experimental test, numerical simulation was performed to investigate the effect of hole diameter, length of edge notch, filling thickness and filling length on the tensile behavior of joint filling. Model dimension was 19 cm×15 cm. hole diameter was change in four different values of 2.5 cm, 5 cm, 7.5 cm and 10 cm. glue lengths were different based on the hole diameter, i.e., 12.5 cm for hole diameter of 2.5 cm, 10 cm for hole diameter of 5 cm, 7.5 cm for hole diameter of 7.5 cm and 5 cm for hole diameter of 10 cm. length of edge notch were changed in three different value i.e., 10%, 30% and 50% of glue length. Filling thickness were changed in three different value of 3 mm, 6 mm and 9 mm. Tensile strengths of glue and concrete were 2.37 MPa and 6.4 MPa, respectively. The load was applied at a constant rate of 1 kg/s. Results shows that hole diameter, length of edge notch, filling thickness and filling length have important effect on the tensile behavior of joint filling. In fixed glue thinks and fixed joint length, the tensile strength was decreased by increasing the hole diameter. Comparing the results showed that the strength, failure mechanism and fracture patterns obtained numerically and experimentally were similar for both cases.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.86 no.5
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• pp.607-619
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• 2023

This study, it was tried to evaluate the asphalt behavior under tensile loading conditions through indirect Brazilian and direct tensile tests, experimentally and numerically. This paper is important from two points of view. The first one, a new test method was developed for the determination of the direct tensile strength of asphalt and its difference was obtained from the indirect test method. The second one, the effects of particle size and loading rate have been cleared on the tensile fracture mechanism. The experimental direct tensile strength of the asphalt specimens was measured in the laboratory using the compression-to-tensile load converting (CTLC) device. Some special types of asphalt specimens were prepared in the form of slabs with a central hole. The CTLC device is then equipped with this specimen and placed in the universal testing machine. Then, the direct tensile strength of asphalt specimens with different sizes of ingredients can be measured at different loading rates in the laboratory. The particle flow code (PFC) was used to numerically simulate the direct tensile strength test of asphalt samples. This numerical modeling technique is based on the versatile discrete element method (DEM). Three different particle diameters were chosen and were tested under three different loading rates. The results show that when the loading rate was 0.016 mm/sec, two tensile cracks were initiated from the left and right of the hole and propagated perpendicular to the loading axis till coalescence to the model boundary. When the loading rate was 0.032 mm/sec, two tensile cracks were initiated from the left and right of the hole and propagated perpendicular to the loading axis. The branching occurs in these cracks. This shows that the crack propagation is under quasi-static conditions. When the loading rate was 0.064 mm/sec, mixed tensile and shear cracks were initiated below the loading walls and branching occurred in these cracks. This shows that the crack propagation is under dynamic conditions. The loading rate increases and the tensile strength increases. Because all defects mobilized under a low loading rate and this led to decreasing the tensile strength. The experimental results for the direct tensile strengths of asphalt specimens of different ingredients were in good accordance with their corresponding results approximated by DEM software.

• KSCE Journal of Civil and Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.28 no.6D
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• pp.881-893
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• 2008

The major objective of this study is to investigate the fatigue damage factor evaluation of immovability crossing for railway turnout by the field test and qualitative analysis. From the field test results of the servicing turnout crossing and qualitative analysis with frictional wear which section stiffness decreased, it was evaluated fatigue life of servicing turnout crossing. Most design practices have not taken advantage of the advanced theories in the modern fracture mechanics and finite element analysis due to complexity of analysis as well as the large quantity of vaguely defined parameters in actual designs. This paper considers fatigue problems in turnout crossing using effective analytical and design tools from the field of qualitative constraint reasoning. A set of software modules was developed for fatigue analysis and evaluation, which is easily applicable in engineering practices of designers. The techniques enable the use complex analysis formulations to tackle practical problems with uncertainties, and present the design outcome in two-dimensional design space solution. Appropriate engineering assumptions and judgments in carrying out these procedures, often the most difficult part for practicing engineers, can be partially produced by using qualitative reasoning to define the trends and ranges, interval constraint analysis to derive the controlling parameters, as well as design space to account for practical experience.

• Tunnel and Underground Space
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• v.13 no.1
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• pp.52-63
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• 2003

Discontinuities such as faults, fractures and joints in rock mass play the dominant role in the mechanical and hydraulic properties of the rock mass. The key factors that influence on the flow of groundwater are hydraulic and geometric characteristics of discontinuities and their connectivity. In this study, a program that analyzes groundwater flow in the 3D discontinuity network was developed on the assumption that the discontinuity characteristics such as density, trace length, orientation and aperture have particular distribution functions. This program generates discontinuities in a three-dimensional space and analyzes their connectivity and groundwater flow. Due to the limited computing capacity In this study, REV was not exactly determined, but it was inferred to be greater than 25$\times$25$\times$25 ㎥. By calculating the extent of aperture that influences on the groundwater flow, it was found that the discontinuities with the aperture smaller than 30% of the mean aperture had little influence on the groundwater flow. In addition, there was little difference in the equivalent hydraulic conductivity for the the two cases when considering and not considering the boundary effect. It was because the groundwater flow was mostly influenced by the discontinuities with large aperture. Among the parameters considered in this study, the length, aperture, and orientation of discontinuities had the greatest influence on the equivalent hydraulic conductivity of rock mass in their order. In case of existence of a fault in rock mass, elements of the equivalent hydraulic conductivity tensor parallel to the fault fairly increased in their magnitude but those perpendicular to the fault were increased in a very small amount at the first stage and then converged.

• Journal of the Microelectronics and Packaging Society
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• v.28 no.1
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• pp.39-46
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• 2021

The quantitative measurement of interfacial adhesion energy (Gc) of multilayer thin films for Cu interconnects was investigated using a double cantilever beam (DCB) and 4-point bending (4-PB) test. In the case of a sample with Ta diffusion barrier applied, all Gc values measured by the DCB and 4-PB tests were higher than 5 J/㎡, which is the minimum criterion for Cu/low-k integration without delamination. However, in the case of the Ta/Cu sample, measured Gc value of the DCB test was lower than 5 J/㎡. All Gc values measured by the 4-PB test were higher than those of the DCB test. Measured Gc values increase with increasing phase angle, that is, 4-PB test higher than DCB test due to increasing plastic energy dissipation and roughness-related shielding effects, which matches well interfacial fracture mechanics theory. As a result of the 4-PB test, Ta/Cu and Cu/Ta interfaces measured Gc values were higher than 5 J/㎡, suggesting that Ta is considered to be applicable as a diffusion barrier and a capping layer for Cu interconnects. The 4-PB test method is recommended for quantitative adhesion energy measurement of the Cu interconnect interface because the thermal stress due to the difference in coefficient of thermal expansion and the delamination due to chemical mechanical polishing have a large effect of the mixing mode including shear stress.