• The Journal of Engineering Geology
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• v.7 no.3
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• pp.229-245
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• 1997

There are Common aspects between the underground oil storage cavern and the radioactive waste disposal facility. Both facilities use appropriately the intrinsic natural berrier characteristics of the rock mass and additionally the engineered barrier system for the long term safety. The geological structures and their hydrogeological characteristics in a faactured rock mass act a major role in the safety and performance of the underground oil storage facility through the design, construction and the operation stages. Because the fracture system distributed in a fractured rock block is complicated owing to their own geometrical and hydrogeological attributes, the hydrogeological perforrmrnce of the facility would depend mainly upon the understandings of their characteristics. This study reviews the uncertainties and key issues which have to be considered to analyse the groundwater flow system in a fractured rock mass and proposes the techniques applicable to characterize the hydrogeological parameter.

• Tunnel and Underground Space
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• v.26 no.4
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• pp.283-292
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• 2016

A computer program code was developed to estimate hydraulic behavior of the 2-D connected pipe network system, and implemented to evaluate the effect of joint aperture on hydraulic parameters of fractured rock masses through numerical experiments. A total of 216 stochastic 2-D DFN(discrete fracture network) blocks of $20m{\times}20m$ were prepared using two joint sets with fixed input parameters of joint orientation, frequency and size distribution. Two different cases of joint aperture variation are considered in this study. The hydraulic parameters were estimated for generated 2-D DFN blocks. The hydraulic anisotropy and the chance for equivalent continuum behavior of the DFN system were found to depend on the variability of joint aperture.

• Tunnel and Underground Space
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• v.21 no.2
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• pp.117-127
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• 2011

The purpose of this study is to demonstrate the effect of in-situ rock stresses on the deformability and permeability of fractured rocks. Geological data were taken from the site investigation at Forsmark, Sweden, conducted by Swedish Nuclear Fuel and Waste Man-agement Company (SKB). A set of numerical experiments was conducted to determine the equivalent mechanical properties (essentially, elastic moduli and Poisson's ratio) and permeability, using a Discrete Fracture Network-Discrete Element Method (DFN-DEM) approach. The results show that both mechanical properties and permeability are highly dependent on stress because of the hyperbolic nature of the stiffness of fractures, different closure behavior of fractures, and change of fluid pathways caused by deformation. This study shows that proper characterization and consideration of in-situ stress are important not only for boundary conditions of a selected site but also for the understanding of the mechanical and hydraulic behavior of fractured rocks.

• Proceedings of the Korean Geotechical Society Conference
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• 2000.11a
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• pp.705-712
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• 2000

The fluid generally flows through fractures in crystalline rocks where most of underground storage facilities are constructed because of their low hydraulic conductivities. The fractured rock is better to be conceptualized with a discrete fracture concept, rather continuum approach. In the aspect of fluid flow in underground, the simultaneous flow of groundwater and gas should be considered in the cases of generation and leakage of gas in nuclear waste disposal facilities, air sparging process and soil vapor extraction for eliminating contaminants in soil or rock pore, and pneumatic fracturing for the improvement of permeability of rock mass. For the purpose of appropriate analysis of groundwater-gas flow, this study presents an unsteady-state multi-phase FEM fracture network simulator. Numerical simulation has been also conducted to investigate the hydraulic head distribution and air tightness around Ulsan LPG storage cavern. The recorded hydraulic head at the observation well Y was -5 to -10 m. From the results obtained by the developed model, it shows that the discrete fracture model yielded hydraulic head of -10 m, whereas great discrepancy with the field data was observed in the case of equivalent continuum modeling. The air tightness of individual fractures around cavern was examined according to two different operating pressures and as a result, only several numbers of fractures neighboring the cavern did not satisfy the criteria of air tightness at 882 kPa of cavern pressure. In the meantime, when operating pressure is 710.5 kPa, the most areas did not satisfy air tightness criteria. Finally, in the case of gas leaking from cavern to the surrounding rocks, the resulted hydraulic head and flowing pattern was changed and, therefore, gas was leaked out from the cavern ceiling and groundwater was flowed into the cavern through the walls.

• Proceedings of the KGS Conference
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• 2002.11a
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• pp.40-44
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• 2002

우리나라의 경우 이미 1980년대부터 단열암반(fractured rock)의 지하수를 개발ㆍ이용하여 왔다. 서울시의 지하수 이용시설 중 지하 30m 이상의 개발심도를 나타내는 관정이 31.4%(4,677개소), 100m 이상의 개발관정도 7.2%(1,076개소) 존재하는 것으로 보고되었다(서울시, 1996, 12).(중략)

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.17 no.4
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• pp.323-331
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• 2019

The presence of defects in nature changes the physical parameters of the rock. In this paper, by studying the rock-like specimens with conjugated fractures, the horizontal angle and length are changed, and the physical parameters and failure modes of the specimens under uniaxial compression test are analyzed and compared with the results of simulation analysis. The experimental results show that the peak strength and failure mode of the rock-like specimens are closely related to the horizontal angle. When the horizontal angle is $45^{\circ}$, the maximum value is reached and the tensile failure mode is obtained. The fracture length affects the germination and propagation path of the cracks. It is of great significance to study the failure modes and mechanical properties of conjugated fracture rock-like specimens to guide the support of fractured rock on site.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.27 no.4
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• pp.532-543
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• 1995

In this study, a transport model was developed in order to analyze and predict the transport behaviors of radionuclides mediated by pseudo-colloid in the fractured rock media. The effect of pseudo-colloid formation on the transport of a radionuclide was shown to be tory significant when an ap-parent pseudo-colloid formation constant, $A_{ap}$ (㎥/kg), os greater than 100. It was resulted from example calculations that the transport of Pu-239 was faster than Ni-63 because pseudo-colloid formation constant of Pu-239 was venter than that of Ni-63. Thus, it can be concluded that acceleration of radionuclide migration may be occurred because the pseudo-colloid formation of radionuclides increases the amount of mobile components in the solution and consequently decreases the amount of radionuclides adsorbed on the stationary solid medium.

• KSCE Journal of Civil and Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.36 no.3
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• pp.493-502
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• 2016

This study examines how rock condition affects the variation of the chargeability and electrical resistivity of the rock. In the theoretical study, the relationship correlating chargeability with the variables affecting it is derived. A parametric study utilizing the derived relationship reveals that the size of narrow pores ($r_1$) is the most influential factor on chargeability, and the salinity of pore water ($C_0$) is the second. In the laboratory experiments, small scale rock fracturing zone is modelled using sand stone. Chargeability and resistivity are measured by changing the size of the joint aperture, the location of fractured zone and the existence of clay gouge and/or clay layer which shows lower chargeability than the sand stone layer in the multi-layered ground. Test results show that chargeability is controlled not by the rock fracturing condition but by the size of narrow pore ($r_1$) where each line of current flow passes through. Also, the chargeability decreases with increase of the pore water salinity ($C_0$). In conclusion, the ground condition can be identified more efficiently by measuring the induced polarization along with the electrical resistivity; identifying the existence of sea water, the layered ground and/or the fractured rock becomes more reliable.

• Economic and Environmental Geology
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• v.55 no.1
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• pp.1-17
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• 2022

The mechanical and thermal properties of the rock masses can affect the performance associated with both the isolating and retarding capacities of radioactive materials within the deep geological disposal system for High-Level Radioactive Waste (HLW). In this study, the essential parameters for the site descriptive model (SDM) related to the rock mechanics and thermal properties of the HLW disposal facilities site were reviewed, and the technical background was explored through the cases of the preceding site descriptive models developed by SKB (Swedish Nuclear and Fuel Management Company), Sweden and Posiva, Finland. SKB and Posiva studied parameters essential for the investigation and evaluation of mechanical and thermal properties, and derived a rock mechanics site descriptive model for safety evaluation and construction of the HLW disposal facilities. The rock mechanics SDM includes the results obtained from investigation and evaluation of the strength and deformability of intact rocks, fractures, and fractured rock masses, as well as the geometry of large-scaled deformation zones, the small-scaled fracture network system, thermal properties of rocks, and the in situ stress distribution of the disposal site. In addition, the site descriptive model should provide the sensitivity analysis results for the input parameters, and present the results obtained from evaluation of uncertainty.

• Tunnel and Underground Space
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• v.9 no.2
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• pp.149-157
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• 1999

A powerful numerical method that can be used for that purpose is the Discontinuous Deformation Analysis (DDA) method developed by Shi in 1988. In this method, rock masses are treated as systems of finite and deformable blocks. Large rock mass deformations and block movements are allowed. Although various extensions of the DDA method have been proposed in the literature, the method is not capable of modeling water-block interaction that is needed when modeling surface or underground excavation in fractured rock. This paper presents a new extension to the DDA method. The extension consists of hydro-mechanical coupling between rock blocks and water flow in fractures. A example of application of the DDA method with the new extension is presented. The results of the present study indicate that fracture flow could have a destabilizing effect on the tunnel stability.