• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.8 no.6
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• pp.783-799
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• 2015

In this study, effect of horizontal in situ stress on failure mechanism around underground openings excavated in isotropic, elastic rock zones is investigated. For estimating the plastic zone occurrence, an induced stress influence area approach (Bray Equations) was modified to define critical stress ratio according to the Mohr-Coulomb failure criterion. Results obtained from modified calculations were compared with results of some other analytical solutions for plastic zone thickness estimation and the numerical modelling (finite difference method software, FLAC2D) study. Plastic zone and its geometry around tunnels were analyzed for different in situ stress conditions. The modified equations gave similar results with those obtained from the other approaches. However, safer results were calculated using the modified equations for high in situ stress conditions and excessive ratio of horizontal to vertical in situ stresses. As the outcome of this study, the modified equations are suggested to use for estimating the plastic zone occurrence and its thickness around the tunnels with circular cross-section.

• Proceedings of the Korean Geotechical Society Conference
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• 2005.03a
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• pp.431-438
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• 2005

In this paper, the characteristics of excessive horizontal stress components in Korea were studied using the in-situ hydraulic fracturing stress measurement data over five hundred in 110 individual test boreholes. Based on the in-situ testing data, the magnitude and orientation of the horizontal stress component and variation of stress ratio (K) with depth were investigated. And also horizontal stress magnitude versus depth relationships and distribution limits of stress ratio components were suggested. For the subsurface space above 310 m depth in the entire territory, the stress ratio has a tendency to diminish and be stabilized with depth, but for some areas, it was revealed that the excessive horizontal stress fields with stress ratio close to 3.0 below 200 m in depth have formed. The result of investigation for excessive horizontal stress regions indicates that there exist several regions above 300 m in depth where localized excessive horizontal stresses enough to induce potentially brittle failure around future openings have formed.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.18 no.2
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• pp.65-74
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• 2002

The measurement of in-situ stress is essential to estimate the ground displacement and the stress distribution of a tunnel and an underground structure. In this study, the in-situ stress distribution of the Southern Korean peninsula was re-evaluated by the new 380 in-situ data which were determined by overcoring and hydrofracturing methods, and the three-din erosional numerical analysis of tunnelling was performed. The results of in-situ stress distribution show that the distribution of horizontal stress tends to be more irregular in metamorphosed(gneiss) and granite areas than in sedimentary and volcanic areas. The ratio of horizontal to vertical stresses(K-value) in volcanic area is less than 1 below the depth of 150m. The direction and magnitude of three dimensional in-situ stresses were shown simultaneously in a figure for the first time in Korea. The three-dimensional numerical analysis of tunnelling indicates that the orientation and magnitude of displacement around a tunnel are controlled mainly by the difference between the maximum and minimum horizontal stresses.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.7 no.3
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• pp.233-246
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• 2014

Estimation of fracture initiation pressure is one of the most difficult technical challenges in hydraulic fracturing treatment of vertical or horizontal oil wells. In this study, the influence of in-situ stresses and pore pressure values on fracture initiation pressure and its profile in vertical and horizontal oil wells in a normal stress regime have been investigated. Cohesive elements with traction-separation law (XFEM-based cohesive law) are used for simulating the fracturing process in a fluid-solid coupling finite element model. The maximum nominal stress criterion is selected for initiation of damage in the cohesive elements. The stress intensity factors are verified for both XFEM-based cohesive law and analytical solution to show the validation of the cohesive law in fracture modeling where the compared results are in a very good agreement with less than 1% error. The results showed that, generally by increasing the difference between the maximum and minimum horizontal stress, the fracture pressure and its profile has been strongly changed in the vertical wells. Also, it's been clearly observed that in a horizontal well drilled in the direction of minimum horizontal stress, the values of fracture pressure have been significantly affected by the difference between overburden pressure and maximum horizontal stress. Additionally, increasing pore pressure from under-pressure regime to over-pressure state has made a considerable fall on fracture pressure in both vertical and horizontal oil wells.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.21 no.5
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• pp.103-110
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• 2005

In this paper, the characteristics of excessive horizontal stress components in Korea were studied using more than five hundred measured data set of in-situ hydraulic fracturing test. Based on the in-situ testing data, the magnitude and orientation of the horizontal stress component and variation of stress ratio (K) with depth were investigated. And also horizontal stress magnitude versus depth relationships and distribution limits of stress ratio components were suggested. For the depth less than 310 m in the entire territory, the stress ratio has a tendency to diminish and stabilize with depth, but fur some areas, it was revealed that the excessive horizontal stress fields with stress ratio close to 3.0 below 200 m in depth have formed. The results from the investigation of excessive horizontal stress regions showed that there existed several regions where the localized excessive horizontal stress was big enough to potentially induce brittle failure around the openings at less than 300 m in depth.

• Proceedings of the Korean Geotechical Society Conference
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• 2001.03a
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• pp.97-104
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• 2001

The magnitude and the orientation of in-situ stresses contribute to ground displacement and stresses in the field of underground space. This paper investigates in-situ stresses at various depth on the basis of 392 data which were determined by over-coring and hydro-fracturing test methods in the Korea peninsula. The result shows that in-situ stress distribution are more or less non-uniform through the Granite and Gneiss sub-area, and that the K-value in the Volcanic sub-area are below 1 at the deep depth. Also, the result of three dimensional numerical analyses of tunnel shows that the direction and magnitude of displacement around tunnel are much effected by the stress difference between the maximum and the minimum horizontal stress.

• Tunnel and Underground Space
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• v.18 no.1
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• pp.80-89
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• 2008

The influence of in-situ rock stress on the stability of an underground rock structure increases as the construction depth become deeper and the scale of a rock structure become larger. In general, hydraulic fracturing stress measurement has been performed in the surface boreholes of the target area at the design stage of an underground structure. However, for some areas where the high horizontal stresses were observed or where the overstressed conditions caused by topographical and geological factors are expected, it is desirable to conduct additional in-situ stress measurement in the underground construction site to obtain more detailed stress information for ensuring the stability of a rock structure and the propriety of current design. The study area was a construction site for the additional underground oil storage facility located in the south-east part of OO city, Jeollanam-do. Previous detailed site investigation prior to the design of underground structures revealed that the excessive horizontal stress field with the horizontal stress ratio(K) greater than 3.0 was observed in the construction area. In this study, a total of 13 hydraulic fracturing stress measurements was conducted in two boreholes drill from the two water tunnel sites in the study area. The investigation zone was from 180 m to 300 m in depth from the surface and all of the fracture tracing works were carried out by acoustic televiewer scanning. For some testing intervals at more than 200 m ind depth from surface, the high horizontal stress components the horizontal stress ratio(K) greater than 2.50 were observed. And the overall investigation results showed a good agreement with the previously performed test.

• Tunnel and Underground Space
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• v.26 no.4
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• pp.304-315
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• 2016

In this study, the current horizontal stress characteristics of the Tertiary rock formations in the Pohang Basin are investigated on the basis of the in-situ rock stress measurements at depths from 75 m to 716 m of the 3 test boreholes in the Doumsan area, Pohang. The deep hydraulic fracturing stress measurement results indicated that the horizontal stress components in the test site appear far lower than the average ones by the linear fit for the data set measured from the other domestic sites. But, borehole scanning revealed clearly that lots of small and large scale borehole failures occurred due to the low strength characteristics of the existing rocks. To obtain more accurate and overall information on the horizontal stress direction, the integrated analysis combining the hydraulic fracturing stress measurement and borehole scanning data set were additionally carried out. The analysis results showed that in the upper sedimentary and the lower volcanic rock formation, the dominant orientations of the current maximum horizontal stress components were appeared in the range of $80^{\circ}{\sim}100^{\circ}$ (N80E~N80W) and $120^{\circ}{\sim}140^{\circ}$ (N60W~N40W), respectively. From this study result it was found that the maximum horizontal stress directions have a tendency to rotate in a clockwise direction as the rock formation changes with depth in the test site.

• Geotechnical Engineering
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• v.14 no.5
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• pp.219-234
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• 1998

Modulus measurements in vertical boreholes under simulated horizontal in-situ stress conditions were performed on laboratory rock specimens. The experimental program was focused on the examination of modulus change with the variation of the orientation, magnitude and ratios of horizontal biaxial stresses. The experiment results show that the modulus increases when the magnitude of the horizontal stresses increases. The modulus measured in the minimum principal direction increased when the ratio between the horizontal principal stresses increased, while the modulus measured in the maximum principal direction decreased when the ratio of the horizontal principal stresses increased. These were caused by the tangential stresses that vary depending upon the magnitude of horizontal stresses, the applied pressure and the orientation of measurement. Also, the measured moduli were determined under tensile stress, compressive stress, or both stresses. Thus, the stress effect on deformation modulus should be considered, not only for the interpretation of the results of borehole deformability measurement, but also for the design of underground gas storage and pressure tunnel, and for the interpretation of tunnel monitoring.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.37 no.3
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• pp.213-222
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• 2024

Determination of jointed rock mass properties plays a significant role in the design and construction of underground structures such as tunneling and mining. Rock mass classification systems such as Rock Mass Rating (RMR), Rock Mass Index (RMi), Rock Mass Quality (Q), and deformation modulus (Em) are determined from the jointed rock masses. However, parameters of jointed rock masses can be affected by the tunnel depth below the surface due to the effect of the in situ stresses. In addition, the geomechanical properties of rocks change due to the effect of metamorphism. Therefore, the main objective of this study is to apply correlation analysis to investigate the relationships between rock mass properties and some parameters related to the depth of the tunnel studied. For this purpose, the field work consisted of determining rock mass parameters in a tunnel alignment (~7.1 km) at varying depths from 21 m to 431 m below ground surface. At the same excavation depths, thirty-seven rock types were also sampled and tested in the laboratory. Correlations were made between vertical stress and depth, horizontal/vertical stress ratio (k) and depth, k and Em, k and RMi, k and point load index (PLI), k and Brazilian tensile strength (BTS), Em and uniaxial compressive strength (UCS), UCS and PLI, UCS and BTS. Relationships were significant (significance level=0.000) at the confidence interval of 95% (r = 0.77-0.88) between the data pairs for the rocks taken from depths greater than 166 m where the ratio of horizontal to vertical stress is between 0.6 and 1.2. The in-situ stress parameters affected rock mass properties as well as metamorphism which affected the geomechanical properties of rock materials by affecting the behavior of minerals and textures within rocks. This study revealed that in-situ stress parameters and metamorphism should be reviewed when tunnel studies are carried out.