• Tunnel and Underground Space
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• v.20 no.6
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• pp.408-420
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• 2010

It is important to forecast the final deformation of a tunnel during construction for evaluating its mechanical stability. In this study, the final deformation of a tunnel is forecasted by fitting tunnel deformations measured while excavating to a displacement function and exterpolating it. The tunnel for the study was built in two stages divided into an upper and a lower part. During the lower part construction of the tunnel, the displacement function forecasts the final incremental displacement well compared to the increment measured after completion of the tunnel. It is because the critical initial displacement occurred on passing the measurement pins can be adequately measured during excavating the lower part, which can not be measured during the upper part excavation of the tunnel.

• Design & Manufacturing
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• v.15 no.1
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• pp.8-13
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• 2021

Excavators are construction machines used for digging soil, transporting soil, dismantling buildings and clearing the ground at construction sites. There are various attachments attached to the arm end of the excavator and used for various operations. There are the most common types of buckets attached for excavation and other types of attachments used for foresting, road cleaning, snow removal, and waste disposal. When multiple types of work are done at the same time, several attachments must be replaced and a device called a quick coupler is used to reduce replacement time. Although a quick coupler reduces the replacement time of the Attachment, it is necessary to attach safety devices to prevent unintentional detachment of attached attachments during the operation. To prevent the attachment from leaving or falling regardless of the operator's intention, support is installed in the hook of the bucket pin and controlled through a separate hydraulic cylinder to ensure safety. When attaching an attachment, it shall be attached without any action. This study is intended to verify the design validity of safety devices to prevent falls of attachments occurring at construction sites.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.33 no.5
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• pp.439-451
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• 2023

The construction of shield tunnelling in urban sites is facing serious risks from complex and changeable underground conditions. Construction problems in the sand-clay mixed ground have been more reported in recent decades for its poor control of soil loss in tunnel face, ground settlement and supporting pressure. Since the limitations of observation methods, the conventional physical modelling experiments normally simplify the tunnelling to a plane strain situation whose results are not reliable in mixed ground cases which exhibit more complicated responses. We propose a new method for the study of the mixed ground tunnel through which mixed lays are simulated with transparent soil surrogates exhibiting different mechanical properties. An experimental framework for the transparent soil modelling of the mixed ground tunnel was established incorporated with the self-developed digital image correlation system (PhotoInfor). To understand better the response of face stability, ground deformation, settlement and supporting phenomenon to tunnelling excavation in the sand-clay mixed ground, a series of case studies were carried out comparing the results from cases subjected to different buried depths and mixed phenomenon. The results indicate that the deformation mode, settlement and supporting phenomenon vary with the mixed phenomenon and buried depth. Moreover, a stratigraphic effect exists that the ground movement around mixed face reveals a notable difference.

• Journal of Radiation Industry
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• v.17 no.4
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• pp.333-344
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• 2023

To validate the numerical model used in the study of deep disposal of spent nuclear fuel, we selected benchmark cases and performed numerical model validation. We selected the DECOVALEX-THMC Task D_THM1 FEBEX Type benchmark case, which was conducted from 2003 to 2007. We analyzed the thermal-hydraulic (TH) behavior using the finite element program CODE_BRIGHT and verified the results against previous studies. The temperature results were similar to the results of DECOVALEX-THMC Task D. The saturation results showed a similar trend to the results of DECOVALEX-THMC Task D, but the time to reach full saturation was different.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.38 no.5
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• pp.507-515
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• 2024

An accurate estimation of the geotechnical parameters in front of tunnel faces is crucial for the safe construction of underground infrastructure using tunnel boring machines (TBMs). This study was aimed at developing a data-driven model for predicting the rock quality designation (RQD) of the ground formation ahead of tunnel faces. The dataset used for the machine learning (ML) model comprises seven geological and mechanical features and 564 RQD values, obtained from an earth pressure balance (EPB) shield TBM tunneling project beneath the Han River in the Republic of Korea. Four ML algorithms were employed in developing the RQD prediction model: k-nearest neighbor (KNN), support vector regression (SVR), random forest (RF), and extreme gradient boosting (XGB). The grid search and five-fold cross-validation techniques were applied to optimize the prediction performance of the developed model by identifying the optimal hyperparameter combinations. The prediction results revealed that the RF algorithm-based model exhibited superior performance, achieving a root mean square error of 7.38% and coefficient of determination of 0.81. In addition, the Shapley additive explanations (SHAP) approach was adopted to determine the most relevant features, thereby enhancing the interpretability and reliability of the developed model with the RF algorithm. It was concluded that the developed model can successfully predict the RQD of the ground formation ahead of tunnel faces, contributing to safe and efficient tunnel excavation.

• Tunnel and Underground Space
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• v.10 no.2
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• pp.237-248
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• 2000

Based on the preliminary results from the therm analysis, which is currently carrying, three-dimensional computer simulations using a finite element code, ABAQUS Ver. 5.8, were designed to determine the mechanically stable cavern and deposition hole spacing. Linear elastic modeling for the cases with different cavern and deposition hole spacing were carried out under three different in situ stress conditions. From the simulations, the response of the rock to the stress redistribution after the excavation of the openings could be investigated. Also the optimum cavern and deposition hole spacing could be estimated based on the factor of safety. When the in situ stress determined from the actual stress measurements in Korea were used, the case with cavern spacing of 40m and deposition hole spacing of 3m was in very stable condition, because the factor of safety was calculated as 3.42., When the in situ stress conditions for Sweden and Canada were used, the previous case, they seem to be in stable condition, since the factors of safety are still higher than 1.0. From these results, it was concluded that the rock will not fail even after the stress redistribution.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society for Rock Mechanics Conference
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• 2000.09a
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• pp.93-103
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• 2000

The concrete plug in an underground cavern prevents the stored product (oil, gas, etc) from leaking and the excessive show of underground water, so it plays an important role in construction and operation of the storage cavern. Additionally, it should maintain its stability under every possible loading condition. Once the plug is constructed, the cavern is isolated from the external access. Therefore, mechanical and hydraulic consideration should be made in construction to fulfill its function. Therefore, in this study, numerical analyses were conducted to study the optimal shape and thickness of the plug with respect to the various conditions of installation depth, the shape of the plug, in-situ stress ratio (K), the condition of rock-plug interface, and the effect of Excavation Damaged Zone (EDZ). This paper also presents the effect of slot depth on the hydraulic behavior of the plug. These analyses were carried out by using the 2-dimensional finite difference code, rm FLAC, and the 3D code, m FLA $C^{3D}$./.

• Tunnel and Underground Space
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• v.10 no.3
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• pp.344-354
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• 2000

The concrete plug in an underground cavern prevents the stored product (oil, gas, etc) from leaking and the excessive inflow of underground water, so it plays an important role in construction and operation of the storage cavern. Additionally, it should maintain its stability under every possible loading condition. Once the plug is constructed, the cavern is isolated from the external access. Therefore, mechanical and hydraulic consideration should be made in construction to fulfill its function. Therefore, in this study, numerical analyses were conducted to study the optimal shape and thickness of the plug with respect to the various conditions of installation depth, the shape of the plug, in-situ stress ratio (K), the condition of rock-plug interface, and the effect of Excavation Damaged Zone (EDZ). This paper also presents the effect of slot depth on the hydraulic behavior of the plug. These analyses were carried out by using the 2-dimensional finite difference code, rm FLAC, and the 3D code, rm FLAC$\^$3D/.

• Tunnel and Underground Space
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• v.17 no.2 s.67
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• pp.90-101
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• 2007

With increasing development of underground space, underground pumped storage power plants, which generate power by felling water in upper reservoir to lower reservoir, have been continuously constructed. For efficient and safe design, construction and maintenance or such power plants, it is very important to understand in-situ stress and the mechanical properties of the surrounding rock mass at the design stage. The power plant presented in this paper is under construction at a depth of $320{\sim}375m$. For stability evaluation of the structure, in-situ stress was measured by over-coring method. Also pressurementer test and a series or laboratory tests were performed to obtain the mechanical properties. Numerical analyses were conducted to check the efficiency of designed support patterns. The results showed that unstable areas occurred partly in the numerical model, and therefore supports were additionally applied. Finally complete stability was obtained and the following excavation has been operated successfully until now.

• Tunnel and Underground Space
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• v.17 no.3 s.68
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• pp.225-233
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• 2007

Because of Norwegian topography as valleys and fjords, a large number of tunnels has been built and 59 of them have been excavated by TBM for last 30 years. Prognosis technology has been developed and improved through lots of TBM experiences, and the NTNU prediction model has been completed. This paper focuses the improvement of net penetration rate and advance rate in 14 Norwegian and 4 Koran TBM tunnelling sites of which data were reported. Through this period, net penetration rate as well as advance rate were increased to double with the improvement of disc cutter size and cutter arrangement in Norway. These rates in Korea were also increased for 15 years even though the rates were lower compared to Norwegian. It is estimated that these low rates were mainly caused by using disc cutters less than 17 inch diameter. It is expected that net penetration rate and advance rate can be increased by improvement of machine and tunnelling technology, especially by using 17 or 19 inch of the disc cutter size in the Korean full face mechanical tunnelling site.