• Journal of Soil and Groundwater Environment
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• v.21 no.6
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• pp.46-55
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• 2016

This experimental study was aimed to estimate interfacial tension of brine-$CO_2$ by using a pendant bubble method and image analysis. Measurements were performed for wide ranges of temperatures, pressures, and salinities covering reservoir conditions in Pohang basin, a possible candidate for $CO_2$ storage operation in Korea. The profiles of $CO_2$ bubbles in brine obtained from image analysis with the densities of brine and $CO_2$ from previous studies were applied to Laplace-Young equation for calculating interfacial twnsion in brine-$CO_2$ system. The experimental results reveals that the interfacial tension is significantly affected by reservoir conditions such as pressure, temperature and water salinity. For conditions of constant temperature and water salinity, the interfacial tension decreases as pressure increases for low pressures (P < $P_c$), and approaches to a constant value for high pressures. For conditions of constant pressure and water salinity, the interfacial tension increases as temperature increases for T < $T_c$, with an asymptotic trend towards a constant value for high temperatures. For conditions of constant pressure and temperature, the interfacial tension increases with increasing water salinity. The trends in changes of interfacial tension can be explained by the effects of the reservoir conditions on the density difference of brine and $CO_2$, and the solubility of $CO_2$ in brine. The information on interfacial tensions obtained from this research can be applied in predicting the migration and distribution of injecting and residual fluids in brine-$CO_2$-rock systems in deep geological environments during geological $CO_2$ sequestrations.

• Journal of Nuclear Fuel Cycle and Waste Technology(JNFCWT)
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• v.20 no.4
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• pp.429-453
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• 2022

Numerical modeling and scenario composition are needed to characterize the geological environment of the disposal site and analyze the long-term evolution of natural barriers. In this study, processes and features of the hydro-mechanical behavior of natural barriers were categorized and represented using the interrelation matrix proposed by SKB and Posiva. A hydro-mechanical coupled model was evaluated for analyzing stress field changes and fracture zone re-activation. The processes corresponding to long-term evolution and the hydro-mechanical mechanisms that may accompany critical processes were identified. Consequently, practical numerical methods could be considered for these geological engineering issues. A case study using a numerical method for the stability analysis of an underground disposal system was performed. Critical stress distribution regime problems were analyzed numerically by considering the strata's movement. Another case focused on the equivalent continuum domain composition under the upscaling process in fractured rocks. Numerical methods and case studies were reviewed, confirming that an appropriate and optimized modeling technique is essential for studying the stress state and geological history of the Korean Peninsula. Considering the environments of potential disposal sites in Korea, selecting the optimal application method that effectively simulates fractured rocks should be prioritized.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.38 no.1
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• pp.69-77
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• 2024

The development of shield-driven cross-river tunnels in China is witnessing a notable shift towards larger diameters, longer distances, and higher water pressures due to the more complex excavation environment. Complex geological formations, such as fault and karst cavities, pose significant construction risks. Real-time adjustment of shield tunneling parameters based on parameter prediction is the key to ensuring the safety and efficiency of shield tunneling. In this study, prediction models for the torque and thrust of the cutter plate of ultra-large diameter slurry shield TBMs is established based on integrated learning algorithms, by analyzing the real data of Heyan Road cross-river tunnel. The influence of geological complexities at the excavation face, substantial burial depth, and high water level on the slurry shield tunneling parameters are considered in the models. The results reveal that the predictive models established by applying Random Forest and AdaBoost algorithms exhibit strong agreement with actual data, which indicates that the good adaptability and predictive accuracy of these two models. The models proposed in this study can be applied in the real-time prediction and adaptive adjustment of the tunneling parameters for shield tunneling under complex geological conditions.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Precision Engineering Conference
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• 2005.06a
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• pp.1636-1639
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• 2005

The process equipment and remote handling for the deep geological disposal of high-level radioactive waste(HLW) should be checked prior to the operation in view of reliability and operability. In this study, the concept of virtual environment workcell is implemented to analyze and define the feasible disposal process instead of real mock-up, which is very expensive and time consuming. To do this, the parts of process equipment for the disposal and maintenance will be modeled in 3-D graphics, assembled, and kinematics will be assigned. Also, the virtual workcell for the encapsulation and disposal process of spent fuel will be implemented in the graphical environment, which is the same as the real environment. This virtual workcell will have the several functions for verification such as analyses for the equipment's work space, the collision detection, the path planning and graphic simulation of the processes etc. This graphic virtual workcell of the HLW disposal process can be effectively used in designing of the processes for the hot cell equipment and enhance the reliability of the spent fuel management.

• Journal of Soil and Groundwater Environment
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• v.15 no.6
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• pp.9-16
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• 2010

Groundwater sampling was performed at 38 wells where they are located in the areas with high uranium and radon (marked as A and B, respectively) concentrations, which were based on the previous research results. In-situ parameters (temperature, pH, EC, Eh, DO) and natural radionuclides (uranium and radon) were analyzed to figure out the characteristics of groundwater environments. In-situ data did not show any relations to natural radionuclide data, which could be caused by groundwater mixing, depths of wells, and geological settings, etc. But the highest radon well presented relatively low temperature value and the highest uranium well presented relatively low pH values The highest uranium concentration ranging $1.14{\sim}188.19{\mu}g/L$ showed in the area of A region consisted of Jurassic two-mica granite. The areas of Jurassic biotite granite and Cretaceous granite in the A region have the uranium concentrations ranging $0.10{\sim}49.78{\mu}g/L$ and $0.36{\sim}3.01{\mu}g/L$, respectively. The uranium values from between wells of community water systems (CWSs) penetrating fractured bed-rock aquifers and personal boreholes settled in shallow aquifers near the wells of CWSs show big differences. It implies that the groundwaters of the two areas have evolved from different water-rock interaction paths that may caused by various types of wells having different aquifers. High radon activities in the area of B region composed of Precambrian gneiss showed ranging from 6,770 to 64,688 pCi/L. Even though the wells are located in the same geological settings, their rodon concentration presented different according to depth and distance.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.30 no.2
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• pp.187-199
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• 2022

Kriging metamodel, as a flexible machine learning method for approximating deterministic analysis models of an engineering system, has been widely used for efficiently estimating slope reliability in recent years. However, the autocorrelation function (ACF), a key input to Kriging that affects the accuracy of reliability estimation, is usually selected based on empiricism. This paper proposes an adaption of the Kriging method, named as Genetic Algorithm optimized Whittle-Matérn Kriging (GAWMK), for addressing this issue. The non-classical two-parameter Whittle-Matérn (WM) function, which can represent different ACFs in the Matérn family by controlling a smoothness parameter, is adopted in GAWMK to avoid subjectively selecting ACFs. The genetic algorithm is used to optimize the WM model to adaptively select the optimal autocorrelation structure of the GAWMK model. Monte Carlo simulation is then performed based on GAWMK for a subsequent slope reliability analysis. Applications to one explicit analytical example and two slope examples are presented to illustrate and validate the proposed method. It is found that reliability results estimated by the Kriging models using randomly chosen ACFs might be biased. The proposed method performs reasonably well in slope reliability estimation.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Marine Environment & Energy
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• v.12 no.4
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• pp.307-319
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• 2009

Carbon dioxide capture and storage (CCS) technology has been regarded as one of the most possible and practical option to reduce the emission of carbon dioxide ($CO_2$) and consequently to mitigate the climate change. Korean government also have started a 10-year R&D project on $CO_2$ storage in sea-bed geological structure including gas field and deep saline aquifer since 2005. Various relevant researches are carried out to cover the initial survey of suitable geological structure storage site, monitoring of the stored $CO_2$ behavior, basic design of $CO_2$ transport and storage process and the risk assessment and management related to $CO_2$ leakage from engineered and geological processes. Leakage of $CO_2$ to the marine environment can change the chemistry of seawater including the pH and carbonate composition and also influence adversely on the diverse living organisms in ecosystems. Recently, IMO (International Maritime Organization) have developed the risk assessment and management framework for the $CO_2$ sequestration in sub-seabed geological structures (CS-SSGS) and considered the sequestration as a waste management option to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions. This framework for CS-SSGS aims to provide generic guidance to the Contracting Parties to the London Convention and Protocol, in order to characterize the risks to the marine environment from CS-SSGS on a site-specific basis and also to collect the necessary information to develop a management strategy to address uncertainties and any residual risks. The environmental risk assessment (ERA) plan for $CO_2$ storage work should include site selection and characterization, exposure assessment with probable leak scenario, risk assessment from direct and in-direct impact to the living organisms and risk management strategy. Domestic trial of the $CO_2$ capture and sequestration in to the marine geologic formation also should be accomplished through risk management with specified ERA approaches based on the IMO framework. The risk assessment procedure for $CO_2$ marine storage should contain the following components; 1) prediction of leakage probabilities with the reliable leakage scenarios from both engineered and geological part, 2) understanding on physio-chemical fate of $CO_2$ in marine environment especially for the candidate sites, 3) exposure assessment methods for various receptors in marine environments, 4) database production on the toxic effect of $CO_2$ to the ecologically and economically important species, and finally 5) development of surveillance procedures on the environmental changes with adequate monitoring techniques.

• Journal of Korean Society for Atmospheric Environment
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• v.25 no.3
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• pp.196-210
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• 2009

The land surface precesses is very important to predict urban meteorological conditions. Thus, the latest land use data set to reflect the rapid progress in urbanization was applied to simulate urban thermal environment in Daegu. Because use of the U.S geological Survey (USGS) 25-category data, currently in the fifth-generation Pennsylvania State University-National Center for Atmospheric Research Mesoscale Model (MM5), does not accurately described the heterogeneity of urban surface, we replaced the land use data in USGS with the latest land-use data of the Korea Ministry of Environment over Daegu. The single urban category in existing 24-category U.S. Geological survey land cover classification used in MM5 was divided into 5 classes to account for heterogeneity of urban land cover. The new land cover classification (MC-LULC) improved the capability of MM5 to simulate the daytime part of the diurnal temperature cycle in the urban area. The 'MC-LULC' simulation produced the observed temperature field reasonably well, including spatial characteristics. The warm cores in western Daegu is characterized by an industrial area.

• Economic and Environmental Geology
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• v.52 no.6
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• pp.637-645
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• 2019

Due to the transformation to the intelligent information society, the rapid change of our life and environment is expected. The Ministry of Science and ICT (MSIT) and the National Research Council of Science and Technology (NST) introduced a five-year government supported research institution's planning and evaluation based on the mid-to long-term perspective. This study collects international benchmarking information including industry, academia, and research fields by collecting mid- and long-term strategy reports from public research institutes, surveys by experts from abroad universities and research institutes, and analyzing overseas market information reports. The British Geological Survey (BGS), the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) and the japanese geological survey related institutes (AIST-GSJ) plans for three-dimensional national geological information, predictions of geological environmental disasters, and development of important metals and material in the low carbon economic transformation and in the era of the Fourth Industrial Revolution. The mid- and long-term program emphasizes basic and public research on geological information through abroad experts survey such as the IPGP-CNRS etc. The market analysis of the mining automation and digital map sectors has been able to derive the fields in which the role of public research institutes by the market is expected such as data collection on land and in the air, mobile or three-dimensional information production, smooth/fast/real-time maps, custom map design, mapping support to various platforms, geological environmental risk assessment and disaster management information and maps.

• The Journal of Engineering Geology
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• v.17 no.2 s.52
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• pp.205-215
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• 2007

In this study, the soil characteristics are analyzed using the result of various soil tests as an object of the soil layer of natural slopes in landslides areas. Also, the relationship with landslides and interrelation with each soil properties are analyzed. The landslides in three areas with different geological condition are occurred due to heavy rainfall in same time. The geology of Jangheung area, Sangju area and Pohang area is gneiss, granite, and the tertiary sedimentary rock, respectively. However soil characteristics have a little differentiation to geological condition, the soils sampled from landslide area have higher proportion of fine particle and porosity, and lower density than those from non landslide area. In case of same geological condition, landslides are occurred in the terrain slope with high permeability. The permeability is mainly influenced by the soil characteristics such as particle size distribution, porosity, particle structure, and the geological origins such as weathering, sedimentary environment. The soil layer with high internal friction angle is more stable than that with low internal friction angle in all geological condition. The permeability is mainly influenced by effective particle size, coefficient of uniformity, coefficient of gradation, porosity, density and so on. Also, those have interrelation with each factor. These interrelations are similar in all study area. Meanwhile, in proportion as the void ratio and the porosity rises the permeability increases.