• Tunnel and Underground Space
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• v.26 no.5
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• pp.409-417
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• 2016

The shale gas is emerging as one of the oil and gas resources which can replace the traditional oil and gas resources. As the shale layer where the shale gas is deposited has low permeability, the hydrofracturing method is required to improve the productivity. This study is designed to conduct the laboratory hydrofracturing test on the samples which are modeled after the drilling hole having the general drilling hole and spiral groove. And compare the initial fracturing pressure and fluid contact between them in order to the result of the hydrofracturing depending on the shape of the drilling hole. In addition, the results were compared with the numerical modeling values from 3DEC and they were also compared with the data from the advance researches. It was found from the study that rather than the contact area of the high pressures water, the force concentration depending on the form of guide hole was more effective in the hydrofracturing.

• Tunnel and Underground Space
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• v.7 no.1
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• pp.39-50
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• 1997

Reference concepts for the disposal of spent nuclear fuel and the current status of underground rock laboratory were studied. An analysis to simulate the deep disposal of spent nuclear fuel in saturated rock mass was conducted. Main input parameters for numerical study were determined based on the KBS-3 concept. A series of results showed that the temperature distribution around a cavern reached the maximum value at about 10 years after the emplacement of spent fuel. The maximum temperature at the surface of canister was more than about 12$0^{\circ}C$ at about 4 years. This temperature was not much higher than the temperature criteria to meet the performance criteria of an artificial barrier in the KBS-3 concept. The maximum upward displacement due to the heat generation of spent fuel was about 0.9cm at about 10 years after the emplacement of spent fuel. It turned out that the vertical displacement became smaller with the decrease in heat generation of a canister. The quantity of groundwater inflow into a disposal tunnel increased by about 1.6 times at 20 years after the emplacement of spent fuel with the increase of pore pressure around a cavern.

• Journal of Nuclear Fuel Cycle and Waste Technology(JNFCWT)
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• v.19 no.2
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• pp.267-270
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• 2021

Long-term experiments have been conducted on two important safety issues: long-term durability of a concrete barrier with the steel reinforcements and gas generation from low-and intermediate-level wastes in an underground research tunnel of a radioactive waste disposal facility. The gas generation and microbial communities were monitored from waste packages (200 L and 320 L) containing simulated dry active wastes. In the concrete experiment, corrosion sensors were installed on the steel reinforcements which were embedded 10 cm below the surface of concrete in a concrete mock-up, and groundwater was fed into the mock-up at a pressure of 2.1 bars to accelerate groundwater infiltration. No clear evidence was observed with respect to corrosion initiation of the steel reinforcement for 4 years of operation. This is attributed to the high integrity and low hydraulic conductivity of the concrete. In the gas generation experiment, significant levels of gas generation were not measured for 4 years. These experiments are expected to be conducted for a period of more than 10 years.

• Tunnel and Underground Space
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• v.31 no.4
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• pp.243-269
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• 2021

Since the early 2010s, the social importance of research and practical projects targeting deep geological disposal of high-level nuclear waste, underground CO₂ storage and characterization of deep subsurface by borehole investigation has been increasing. In this regard, there is also a significant increase in the need for in situ test technology to obtain quantitative and reliable information on the hydraulic characteristics of deep rock mass. Through years of research and development, we have independently set up Deep borehole Hydraulic Test System (DHTS) based on the key apparatuses designed and made with our own technology. Using this system, high precision constant pressure injection tests were successfully completed at the two 1 km boreholes located in Mesozoic granite and sedimentary rock regions, Gyeongju. During the field tests, it was possible to measure very low flow rate below 0.01 l/min with micro flow rate injection/control module. In this paper, the major characteristics of DHTS are introduced and also some results obtained from the high precision field tests under the deep and low permeable rock mass environment are briefly discussed.

• 한국전산유체공학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2008.03b
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• pp.626-629
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• 2008

Numerical predictions on flow phenomena in pipe network systems have been considered as playing an important role in both designing and operating various facilities of piping or duct systems, such as water supply, tunnel or mine ventilation, hydraulic systems of automobile or aircraft, and etc. Traditionally, coupling conditions between junction and connected branches are assumed to satisfy conservation law of mass and to share an equal pressure at junction node. However, the conventional methodology cannot reflect momentum interactions between pipes sufficiently. Thus, a new finite volume junction treatment is proposed both to reflect the interchanges of linear momentums between neighbor branches at junction and to include the effect of wall at junction in present work.

• Tunnel and Underground Space
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• v.27 no.5
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• pp.263-270
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• 2017

Hydraulic rock splitting is a technique which leads to failure of rockmass by means of water injection with a pressure higher than the tensile strength of rockmass, using straddle packer installed in boreholes drilled from free surface. Field tests were conducted in this study for several slopes of biotite granite according to various designs for borehole layout and water injection. Test results showed that new cracks were generated to connect to adjacent holes or that pre-existed cracks were propagated by injection, finally leading to failure. In particular, this study suggests the possibility of controlling the direction of generated cracks with guide slot, since new cracks were generated parallel to the guide slots carved on a borehole wall before injection. Various types of borehole layout and injection methods should be further developed for the practical uses, considering the factors influencing on crack generation.

• International Journal of Fluid Machinery and Systems
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• v.8 no.4
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• pp.264-273
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• 2015

This presentation describes an experimental approach for the detection of cavitation in hydraulic machines by use of ultrasonic signal analysis. Instead of using the high frequency pulses (typically 1MHz) only for transit time measurement different other signal characteristics are extracted from the individual signals and its correlation function with reference signals in order to gain knowledge of the water conditions. As the pulse repetition rate is high (typically 100Hz), statistical parameters can be extracted of the signals. The idea is to find patterns in the parameters by a classifier that can distinguish between the different water states. This classification scheme has been applied to different cavitation sections: a sphere in a water flow in circular tube at the HSLU in Lucerne, a NACA profile in a cavitation tunnel and two Francis model test turbines all at LMH in Lausanne. From the signal raw data several statistical parameters in the time and frequency domain as well as from the correlation function with reference signals have been determined. As classifiers two methods were used: neural feed forward networks and decision trees. For both classification methods realizations with lowest complexity as possible are of special interest. It is shown that two to three signal characteristics, two from the signal itself and one from the correlation function are in many cases sufficient for the detection capability. The final goal is to combine these results with operating point, vibration, acoustic emission and dynamic pressure information such that a distinction between dangerous and not dangerous cavitation is possible.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.15 no.5
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• pp.3-18
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• 1999

The geotextile filter, which is installed between the ground and the lining and used as a tunnel drainage system, should have sufficient groundwater drainage capacity so that water pressure does not act on the lining. The clogging may have a serious effect on the long term behaviour of geotextile filters. Two typical weathered residual soils in Korea, Shinnae-dong soil and Poi-dong soil, were chosen to investigate the in-plane flow characteristics of the soils with varying degree of compressive stresses applied on the geotextiles and with various conditions of hydraulic gradient. The Shinnae-dong soil is a relatively coarse material classified as'SW-SM'; on the other hand, the Poi-dong soil is much finer and is classified as'SC'. Based on the comparison of the $O_{95}$ of geotextile to the $D_{15}$ of residual soils, existing clogging criteria were reviewed, and a tentative clogging criterion for the in-plane flow of the residual soil through filters was proposed. The Shinnae-dong soil showed noticeable clogging phenomenon, while the clogging of the Poi-dong soil was not so serious. The Poi-dong soil seemed to be hindered in particle transport by its cohesiveness.

• Tunnel and Underground Space
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• v.29 no.3
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• pp.197-213
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• 2019

We simulated the fault reactivation experiment conducted at 'Main Fault' intersecting the low permeability clay formations of Mont Terri Underground Research Laboratory in Switzerland using TOUGH-FLAC simulator. The fluid flow along a fault was modelled with solid elements and governed by Darcy's law with the cubic law in TOUGH2, whereas the mechanical behavior of a single fault was represented by creating interface elements between two separating rock blocks in FLAC3D. We formulate the hydro-mechanical coupling relation of hydraulic aperture to consider the elastic fracture opening and failure-induced dilation for reproducing the abrupt changes in injection flow rate and monitoring pressure at fracture opening pressure. A parametric study was conducted to examine the effects of in-situ stress condition and fault deformation and strength parameters and to find the optimal parameter set to reproduce the field observations. In the best matching simulation, the fracture opening pressure and variations of injection flow rate and monitoring pressure showed good agreement with field experiment results, which suggests the capability of the numerical model to reasonably capture the fracture opening and propagation process. The model overestimated the fault displacement in shear direction and the range of reactivated zone, which was attributed to the progressive shear failures along the fault at high injection pressure. In the field experiment results, however, fracture tensile opening seems the dominant mechanism affecting the hydraulic aperture increase.

• Tunnel and Underground Space
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• v.29 no.3
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• pp.157-171
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• 2019

The fracturing by liquid carbon dioxide ($LCO_2$) as a fracking fluid has been an alternative to mitigate the environmental issues often caused by the conventional hydraulic fracking since it facilitates the fluid permeation owing to its low viscosity. This study presents how $LCO_2$ injection influences the breakdown pressure, acoustic emission, and fracture morphology. Three fracturing fluids such as $LCO_2$, water, and oil are injected with different pressurization rate to the synthetic and porous mortar specimens. Also, the shale which has been a major target formation in conventional fracking practices is also tested to examine the failure characteristics. The results show that $LCO_2$ injection induces more tortuous and undulated fractures, and particularly the larger fractures are developed in cases of shale specimen. On the other hand, the relationship between the fracturing fluids and the breakdown pressure shows opposite tendency in the tests of mortar and shale specimens.