• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.54 no.1
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• pp.130-137
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• 2022

In the geological repository of radioactive nuclear waste, anaerobic corrosion can generate hydrogen, and may conservatively lead to the production of hydrogen-air layer. The accumulated hydrogen may cause a hazardous flame propagation resulting from any potential ignition sources. This study numerically investigates the processes of ignition and flame propagation in the layered mixture. Simple geometry was chosen to represent the geological repository, and reactive flow simulations were performed with different ignition power, energy, and locations. The simulation results revealed the effects of power and energy of ignition source, which were also analyzed theoretically. The mechanism of layered flame propagation was suggested, which includes three stages: propagation into the hydrogen area, downward propagation due to the product gas, and horizontal propagation along the top wall. To investigate the effect of the ignition source location, simulations with eight different positions were performed, and the boundary of hazardous ignition area was identified. The simulation results were also explained through scaling analysis. This study evaluates the potential risk of the accumulated hydrogen in geological repository, and illustrates the layered flame propagation in related ignition scenarios.

• 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.34 no.1
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• pp.29-41
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• 2023

The 3D geospatial modeling of geotechnical information can aid in understanding the geotechnical characteristic values of the continuous subsurface at construction sites. In this study, a geostatistical optimization model for the three-dimensional (3D) mapping of subsurface stratification and the SPT-N value based on a trial-and-error rule was developed and applied to a dam emergency spillway site in South Korea. Geospatial database development for a geotechnical investigation, reconstitution of the target grid volume, and detection of outliers in the borehole dataset were implemented prior to the 3D modeling. For the site-specific subsurface stratification of the engineering geo-layer, we developed an integration method for the borehole and geophysical survey datasets based on the geostatistical optimization procedure of ordinary kriging and sequential Gaussian simulation (SGS) by comparing their cross-validation-based prediction residuals. We also developed an optimization technique based on SGS for estimating the 3D geometry of the SPT-N value. This method involves quantitatively testing the reliability of SGS and selecting the realizations with a high estimation accuracy. Boring tests were performed for validation, and the proposed method yielded more accurate prediction results and reproduced the spatial distribution of geotechnical information more effectively than the conventional geostatistical approach.

• Journal of the Korean earth science society
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• v.36 no.5
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• pp.437-446
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• 2015

Many edge detection methods, based on horizontal and vertical derivatives, have been introduced to provide us with intuitive information about the horizontal distribution of a subsurface anomalous body. Understanding the characteristics of each edge detection method is important for selecting an optimized method. In order to compare the characteristics of the individual methods, this study applied each method to synthetic magnetic data created using homogeneous prisms with different sizes, the numbers of bodies, and spacings between them. Seven edge detection methods were comprehensively and quantitatively analyzed: the total horizontal derivative (HD), the vertical derivative (VD), the 3D analytic signal (AS), the title derivative (TD), the theta map (TM), the horizontal derivative of tilt angle (HTD), and the normalized total horizontal derivative (NHD). HD and VD showed average good performance for a single-body model, but failed to detect multiple bodies. AS traced the edge for a single-body model comparatively well, but it was unable to detect an angulated corner and multiple bodies at the same time. TD and TM performed well in delineating the edges of shallower and larger bodies, but they showed relatively poor performance for deeper and smaller bodies. In contrast, they had a significant advantage in detecting the edges of multiple bodies. HTD showed poor performance in tracing close bodies since it was sensitive to an interference effect. NHD showed great performance under an appropriate window.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.8 no.5
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• pp.675-685
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• 2015

Weathering is the breaking/cutting down process of rocks due to physical and chemical processes in natural as well as artificial environment including $CO_2$ injection for storage in the sediment, or natural resource recovery process. This study suggests an alternative method to estimate the degree of weathering for granites. A series of laboratory and field experiments are performed to measure electrical resistivities on various rock samples experienced different degrees of weathering and their residual soils under different saturation conditions. It is found that the normalized electrical resistivity increases with a decrease in water absorption and the saturation. Simple boundaries are suggested to identify the weathering degree of granites, based on limited data. Field test results for three sites confirm that the suggested method could be estimated well the degree of weathering of granites compared with the other methods suggested previously. Although further research is required, this study suggests that an electrical resistivity could be an effective approach to estimate the degree of weathering of granites compared with the other methods suggested previously.

• 한국신재생에너지학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2010.06a
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• pp.168.2-168.2
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• 2010

The growing market for geothermal heat pump system requires great consideration of quality control and assurance in design and construction. The borehole heat exchanger of GHP system should be sustainable, economical and ecological. Thermal Response Test (TRT) is a useful method for site investigation to obtain reliable data for a optimal system design from the technical and economical aspect. Intensive researches combined with exchange of experiences on an international level within the IEA ECES Annex 21 improved the technology. Major subjects on the interpretation of TRT are development of improved evaluation models, evaluation of the TRT with respect to geological layers and investigation of the influence of ground water. Current status of TRT in South Korea, as well as a new version of the Korean TRT standard test procedure was presented. TRT is mostly used for governmental supported projects with corresponds to more than 100 GCHP systems per year. More than 200 tests are applied, mostly on single U-tube heat exchangers (about 95%). Bentonite is the most common grouting to be used. KIGAM (Korea Institute of Geoscience & Mineral Resources) is also keeping a GIS geological and geothermal database. In the institute also laboratory measurements of rock properties are carried out. About 90% of the laboratory measurements of the rock heat conductivity shows higher values than the in-situ TRT.

• Korean Journal of Remote Sensing
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• v.33 no.4
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• pp.411-422
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• 2017

This research aims to analyze spectral reflectance of intertidal zone and its changes under various environmental conditions. We sampled sand of Mongsanpo tidal flat, Korea, and measured its spectral reflectance by using a spectroradiometer under various water contents, compositions and granularity. We also simulated the reflectance of Landsat 7 ETM+ and compared it with an actual satellite data. Five locations were selected for sampling from the coastline towards the ocean. Grain size diminished stepwise from the coastline to ocean direction, while spectral reflectance differed with wavelength. Water contents lowered the overall reflectance especially at the water absorption bands. Spectral reflectance data were then converted into the simulated one by using Landsat 7 ETM+ spectral reflectance function to be compared with the actual Landsat 7 ETM+ images. It showed the decrease of the spectral reflectance due to the increase of moisture contents from seashore towards the ocean. It is shown that Landsat 7 ETM+ imagery can be efficient to extract moisture contents in the tidal flat while compositional analysis needs satellite sensors with much higher spectral resolution.

• Korean Journal of Crystallography
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• v.13 no.1
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• pp.31-35
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• 2002

The possibility of producing the pigments from potash feldspar was studied by adopting the mechanical alloying technique under various gas environments. The experiments were carried out by varying grinding time with the addition of copper metal and titanium oxide in N₂, O₂, He, CO₂, H₂and air atmospheres. The mixture of the potash feldspar concentrate and copper and titanium dioxide are finely ground by a planetary ball mill, and then the composite powders were calcined at 1200℃ for 20 minutes. As a result, the calcined feldspar with 1 wt% of Cu has shown various colors like green in air, black in O₂, dark green in CO₂, brown in H₂, purple in He, and pale green in N₂ atmospheres, respectively.

• Analytical Science and Technology
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• v.15 no.6
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• pp.567-573
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• 2002

The most important and largest commercial outlet of fly ash in Korea is a replacement material of Portland cement in concrete industry. The high level of unburned carbon in ash brings about some malfunctions in concrete. Therefore, fly ash is refined to improve the quality as a concrete additive. In this process, a lot of the residual carbon is produced, and discarded now. In the present study, to find out a valuable outlet of the enriched carbon samples, the basic morphology of residual carbon in fly ash from Boryung power plant was investigated. The unburned carbon characterization included shape, size measurement, and chemical analysis was examined using scanning electron microscope (SEM) and energy dispersive X-ray spectrometer (EDX).

• Analytical Science and Technology
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• v.23 no.2
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• pp.161-164
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• 2010

The concentration of the tritium in precipitation from 2007 to 2009 has been analyzed for using tracer of groundwater study. The samples were collected monthly at Daejeon. The tritium concentrations in precipitation were ranged from 4.2 TU to 18.6 TU. The contents were higher at spring and fall season and lower at summer and winter season. The weighted average tritium content in precipitation was $7.85{\pm}0.46\;TU$.