• Proceedings of the Korean Geotechical Society Conference
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• 2006.03a
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• pp.607-616
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• 2006

More strict construction control of railway roadbeds is demanded in high speed railway system because of heavier repeated dynamic loading than conventional railways. The aim of this study is to propose a compaction control methodology of crushed-rock-soil-fills including as large particles as $200\sim300mm$ in diameter, which are easily encountered in high speed railway roadbed. Field tensity evaluation and in turn compaction control of such crushed-rock-soil-fills are almost impossible by conventional methods such as in-situ density measurements or plate loading tests. The proposed method consists of shear wave measurements of compaction specimens in laboratory and in-situ measurements of fills. In other words, compaction control can be carried out by comparing laboratory and field shear wave velocities using as a compaction control parameter. The proposed method was implemented at a soil site in the beginning and will be expanded to crushed-rock-soil-fills in future. One interesting result is that similar relationship of shear wave velocity and water content was obtained as that of density and water content with the maximum value at the optimum moisture content.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.3 no.3
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• pp.219-231
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• 2011

Waste fills resulting from coal mining should consist of large, free-draining sedimentary rocks fragments. The successful performance of these fills is related to the strength and durability of the individual rock fragments. When fills are made of shale fragments, some fragments will be durable and some will degrade into soil particles resulting from slaking and inter-particle point loads. The degraded material fills the voids between the intact fragments, and results in settlement. A laboratory program with point load and slake durability tests as well as thin section examination of sixty-eight shale samples from the Appalachian region of the United States revealed that pore micro-geometry has a major influence on degradation. Under saturated and unsaturated conditions, the shales absorb water, and the air in their pores is compressed, breaking the shales. This breakage was more pronounced in shales with smooth pore boundaries and having a diameter equal to or smaller than 0.060 mm. If the pore walls were rough, the air-pressure breaking mechanism was not effective. However, pore roughness (measured by the fractal dimension) had a detrimental effect on point load resistance. This study indicated that the optimum shales to resist both slaking as well as point loads are those that have pores with a fractal dimension equal to 1.425 and a diameter equal to or smaller than 0.06 mm.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.17 no.6
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• pp.597-606
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• 2019

Ultrasonic Time-of-Flight Diffraction (TOFD) techniques are useful methods for non-destructive evaluation of fracture characteristics. This study focuses on the reliability and accuracy of ultrasonic diffraction methods to estimate the depth of rock fractures. The study material includes three different rock types; andesite, basalt and ignimbrite. Four different ultrasonic techniques were performed on these intact rocks. Artificial near-surface fracture depths were created in the laboratory by sawing. The reliability and accuracy of each technique was assessed by comparison of the repeated measurements at different path lengths along the rock surface. The standard error associated with the predictive equations is very small and their reliability and accuracy seem to be high enough to be utilized in estimating the depth of rock fractures. The performances of these techniques were re-evaluated after filling the artificial fractures with another material to simulate natural infills.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.1 no.2
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• pp.169-178
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• 2009

Due to the enormous amount of fills required, broken rock-fine grain soil mixtures have been increasingly used in the construction of high-fill foundations for airports, railways and highways in the mountain areas of western China. However, the compressibility behavior of those broken rock-fine grain soil mixtures remains unknown, which impose great uncertainties for the performance of those high-fill foundations. In this research, the mixture of broken limestone and a fine grain soil, Douposi soil, is studied. Large oedometer tests have been performed on specimens with different soil content. This research reveals the significant influence of fine grains on the compressibility of the mixture, including immediate settlement, creep, as well as wetting deformation.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.53 no.10
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• pp.3359-3366
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• 2021

An engineered barrier system (EBS) for the deep geological disposal of high-level radioactive waste (HLW) is composed of a disposal canister, buffer material, gap-filling material, and backfill material. As the buffer fills the empty space between the disposal canisters and the near-field rock mass, heat energy from the canisters is released to the surrounding buffer material. It is vital that this heat energy is rapidly dissipated to the near-field rock mass, and thus the thermal conductivity of the buffer is a key parameter to consider when evaluating the safety of the overall disposal system. Therefore, to take into consideration the sizeable amount of heat being released from such canisters, this study investigated the thermal conductivity of Korean compacted bentonites and its variation within a temperature range of 25 ℃ to 80-90 ℃. As a result, thermal conductivity increased by 5-20% as the temperature increased. Furthermore, temperature had a greater effect under higher degrees of saturation and a lower impact under higher dry densities. This study also conducted a regression analysis with 147 sets of data to estimate the thermal conductivity of the compacted bentonite considering the initial dry density, water content, and variations in temperature. Furthermore, the Kriging method was adopted to establish an uncertainty metamodel of thermal conductivity to verify the regression model. The R² value of the regression model was 0.925, and the regression model and metamodel showed similar results.

• 한국지구물리탐사학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2003.11a
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• pp.72-77
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• 2003

The study tasked by Ryan Lode Mines, Inc. involved analysis of pit slope stability for two future pits, Ryan and Curlew. A geological discontinuity survey and groundwater information were obtained through a field program. Twenty core logs containing geotechnical information were used for rock mass classification. The kinematic analysis was performed based on a friction angle (${\Phi}=35^{\circ}$), the distribution of geological structures, and a dry slope condition. Factors of safety of pit slopes in two future mines were determined using the limit equilibrium method. The mine slopes and benches designed by Mine Development Associates (MDA) were analyzed. The analysis indicated that both pits should have an overall safety factor above 1.0, provided the slopes are kept dry. However, slopes in both pits exceeding 91.4 m (300 ft) high will become critical, when water fills the cracks and discontinuities.

• Proceedings of the Korean Geotechical Society Conference
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• 2005.03a
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• pp.107-112
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• 2005

Road is built continuously along with development of industry and cut slope is happened necessarily in road construction. Geoengineers are executing cut slope stability analysis considering various cut slope condition such as topography, geology, hydraulic condition and so on. The Tertiary Jungja Basin is located in the southeastern coastal area of the Korea Peninsula. Jungja Basin area is created by geotectonic movement of the plate after Early Miocene epoch. The northwestern and southwestern boundary of the basin is fault zone. The Basement rock is hornfels (Ulsan Formation). Basin-fills consist of extrusive volcanic rock(Tangsa Andesites), unconsolidated fluviatile conglomerate(Kangdong Formation) and shallow brackish-water sandstone(Sinhyun Formation). The characteristics of cut slopes in this area is different with cut slopes in the other site. Soil layers in this area is unconsolidated sediments and is not formed the weathering and erosion of the rock. So, the depth of soil layer is very thick. Faults of this area are northwest-southeast and northeast-southwest direction. Expandible clay mineral as smectite, chlorite et al. detected from fault gouge using XRD. Therefore, Jungja Basin area must consider the characteristics of the faults and soil layers thickness necessarily cut slopes stability analysis.

• Proceedings of the KSR Conference
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• 2007.11a
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• pp.1287-1296
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• 2007

Recently, the high speed railway comes into the spotlight as the important and convenient traffic infrastructure. In Korea, Kyung-Bu high speed train service began in about 400km section at 2004, and the Ho-Nam high speed railway will be constructed by 2017. The high speed train will run with a design maximum speed of 300-350km/hr. Since the trains are operated at high speed, the differential settlement of subgrade under the rail is able to cause a fatal disaster. Therefore, the differential settlement of the embankment must be controlled with the greatest care. Furthermore, the characteristics and causes of settlements which occurred under construction and post-construction should be investigated. A considerable number of studies have been conducted on the settlement of the natural ground over the past several decades. But little attention has been given to the compression settlement of the embankment. The long-term settlement of compacted fills embankments is greatly influenced by the post-construction wetting. This is called 'hydro collapse' or 'wetting collapse'. In spite of little study for this wetting collapse problem, it has been recognized that the compressibility of compacted sands, gravels and rockfills exhibit low compressibility at low pressures, but there can be significant compression at high pressures due to grain crushing by several researchers(Marachi et al. 1969, Nobari and Duncan 1972, Noorany et al. 1994, Houston et al. 1993, Wu 2004). The characteristics of compression of fill materials depend on a number of factors such as soil/rock type, as-compacted moisture, density, stress level and wetting condition. Because of the complexity of these factors, it is not easy to predict quantitatively the amount of compression without extensive tests. Therefore, in this research I carried out the wetting collapse tests, with focusing in various soil/rock type, stress levels, wetting condition more closely.

• Journal of Nuclear Fuel Cycle and Waste Technology(JNFCWT)
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• v.18 no.1
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• pp.43-49
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• 2020

An engineered barrier system (EBS) for the geological disposal of high-level radioactive waste (HLW) consists of a disposal canister packed with spent fuel, buffer material, backfill material, and gap-filling material. The buffer material fills the space between the canister and the near-field rock, thus serving to restrain the release of radionuclides and protect the canister from groundwater penetration. Furthermore, as significant amounts of heat energy are released from the canister to the surrounding rock, the thermal conductivity of the buffer plays an important role in maintaining the safety of the entire disposal system. Therefore, given the high levels of heat released from disposal canisters, this study measured the thermal conductivities of compacted bentonite buffers from Gyeongju under temperature variations ranging 25 to 80~90℃. There was a 5~20% increase in thermal conductivity as the temperature increased, and the temperature effect increased as the degree of saturation increased.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.35 no.2
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• pp.209-219
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• 2023

This paper presents numerical investigations into the particle crushing effect on the shear properties of gravel under direct shear condition. A novel particle crushing model was developed based on the octahedral shear stress criterion and fragment replacement method. A series of direct shear tests were carried out on unbreakable particles and breakable particles with different strengths. The evolutions of the particle crushing, shear strength, volumetric strain behavior, and contact force fabric during shearing were analyzed. It was observed that the number of crushed particles increased with the increase of the shear displacement and axial pressure and decreased with the particle strength increasing. Moreover, the shear strength and volume dilatancy were obviously decreased with particle crushing. The shear displacement of particles starting to crush was close to that corresponding to the peak shear stress got. Besides, the shear-hardening behavior was obviously affected by the number of crushed particles. A microanalysis showed that due to particle crushing, the contact forces and anisotropy decreased. The mechanism of the particle crushing effect on the shear strength was further clarified in terms of the particle friction and interlock.