• Water Engineering Research
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• v.2 no.2
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• pp.123-138
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• 2001

An injection experiment was carried ut to investigate the pressure domain within which hydromechanical coupling influences considerably the hydrologic behavior of a granite rock mass. The resulting database is used for testing a numerical model dedicated to the analysis of such hydromechanical interactions. These measurements were performed in an open hole section, isolated from shallower zones by a packer set at a depth of 275 m and extending down to 840 m. They consisted in a series of flow meter injection tests, at increasing injection rates. Field results showed that conductive fractures from a dynamic and interdependent network, that individual fracture zones could not be adequately modeled as independent systems, that new fluid intakes zones appeared when pore pressure exceeded the minimum principal stress magnitude in that well, and that pore pressures much larger than this minimum stress could be further supported by the circulated fractures. These characteristics give rise to the question of the influence of the morphology of the natural fracture network in a rock mass under anisotropic stress conditions on the effects of hydromechanical couplings.

• 한국석유지질학회:학술대회논문집
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• autumn
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• pp.6-22
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• 2001

A study of the fracture systems in outcrops of southern onshore Vietnam revealed two kinds of fracture groups according to their origin: cooling fractures and deformation related fractures. Cooling of magma introduced extensive fractures in the batholiths with wide spacing and narrow aperture. They are found widespread in all magmatic bodies, but result in poor reservoir quality due to low bulk porosity and narrow aperture. Cooling fractures are often reactivated during later stress regimes. Deformation related fractures, especially 'fault damage zones' and 'hanging wall deformation' is thought to form the most important reservoir type in the fractured basement rock. The porosity formed by intense fracturing and fault breccia along minor fault zones is thought to be the producing zones in the producing fields of Cuu Long basin. They are found along major faults and widespread in hanging wall blocks.

• The Journal of Engineering Geology
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• v.9 no.1
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• pp.45-57
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• 1999

Groundwater flow in rock mass is controlled by the fractures developed in the area. So, the conductive fractures are very important for groundwater flow in crystalline rock. This study aims to find out the characteristics of the fracture distributed in granitic rock in the northern part of the Yusong area (latitude $36^{\circ}24'18"~36^{\circ}25'08",{\;}longitude{\;}127^{\circ}21'00"~127^{\circ}23'23"$). The electric and EM surveys were carried out in the site to delineate the fracture the fracture zones. Since geophysical survey provides non-unique solution, hydraulic data and dilling log data including BHTV scanning were used as complementary data to achieve the objective of this study. Electric survey(DC) arrays used are schlumberger and dipole-dipole arrays. VLF is used for EM survey. The main charcteristics of the fracture developed in the study aera are that fractures associated with basic dyke cut corss the main fracture zone in NNW and play an important role as hydraulic barrier. In trun, groundwater table in the upstream area is lower than that downstream area.

• Proceedings of the Korean Geotechical Society Conference
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• 2000.11a
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• pp.705-712
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• 2000

The fluid generally flows through fractures in crystalline rocks where most of underground storage facilities are constructed because of their low hydraulic conductivities. The fractured rock is better to be conceptualized with a discrete fracture concept, rather continuum approach. In the aspect of fluid flow in underground, the simultaneous flow of groundwater and gas should be considered in the cases of generation and leakage of gas in nuclear waste disposal facilities, air sparging process and soil vapor extraction for eliminating contaminants in soil or rock pore, and pneumatic fracturing for the improvement of permeability of rock mass. For the purpose of appropriate analysis of groundwater-gas flow, this study presents an unsteady-state multi-phase FEM fracture network simulator. Numerical simulation has been also conducted to investigate the hydraulic head distribution and air tightness around Ulsan LPG storage cavern. The recorded hydraulic head at the observation well Y was -5 to -10 m. From the results obtained by the developed model, it shows that the discrete fracture model yielded hydraulic head of -10 m, whereas great discrepancy with the field data was observed in the case of equivalent continuum modeling. The air tightness of individual fractures around cavern was examined according to two different operating pressures and as a result, only several numbers of fractures neighboring the cavern did not satisfy the criteria of air tightness at 882 kPa of cavern pressure. In the meantime, when operating pressure is 710.5 kPa, the most areas did not satisfy air tightness criteria. Finally, in the case of gas leaking from cavern to the surrounding rocks, the resulted hydraulic head and flowing pattern was changed and, therefore, gas was leaked out from the cavern ceiling and groundwater was flowed into the cavern through the walls.

• Proceedings of the Korean Geotechical Society Conference
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• 2001.10a
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• pp.161-184
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• 2001

Rock masses usually contain such features as bedding planes, faults, fissures, fractures, joints and other mechanical defects which, although formed from a wide range of geological processes, posses the common characteristics of low shear strength, negligible tensile strength and high fluid conductivity compared with the surrounding rock material. In the engineering context here, the discontinuities can be the single most important factor governing the deformability, strength and permeability of the rock mass. Moreover, a particularly large and persistent discontinuity could critically affect the stability of any surface or underground excavation. For these reasons, it is necessary to develop a thorough understanding of the geometrical, mechanical and hydrological properties of discontinuities and the way in which these will affect rock mechanics and hence rock engineering.

• The Journal of Engineering Geology
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• v.32 no.4
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• pp.725-733
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• 2022

This study applied a hydraulic rock splitting system equipped with a hybrid packer to the bench-cut method. The hybrid packer system is an improvement of the packer developed in previous studies; it is designed efficiently to reduce vibration and noise during rock excavation by combining the two functions of inducing hydraulic fractures using injection pressure and then expanding and extending them using a rubber packer. Field experiments assessed the efficiency of rock excavation with respect to the injection conditions; the adjusted experimental conditions included the distance from the free surface and the test holes drilled at the top of the slope and the injection settings. Using a separation of 5 m left some unexcavated parts, but using a separation of 1 m left no unexcavated parts. The hydraulic fractures generated by the injection pressure developed generally parallel to the free surface and expanded and extended as the rubber packer expanded, thus facilitating bench-cut excavation. For hydraulic rock splitting to be broadly applicable to bench-cut rock excavation, it is important to accumulate results from many field experiments conducted under varying experimental conditions for various types of rockmass.

• Proceedings of the Korean Geotechical Society Conference
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• 2005.03a
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• pp.603-610
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• 2005

The end bearing behavior of piles socketed in weathered/soft rock is generally dependent upon the mass conditions of rock with fractures rather than the strength of intact rock. However, there are few available data and little guidance in the prediction of the end bearing capacity of drilled shafts socketed in weathered/soft rock, considering rock mass weathering. Therefore, a database of 13 load tests was constructed first, and new empirical relationships between the base reaction modulus of piles in rock and rock mass properties were developed. No correlation was found between the compressive strengths of intact rock and the base reaction modulus of weathered/soft rock. The ground investigation data regarding the rock mass conditions(e.g. Em, Eur, RMR, RQD) was found to be highly correlated with the base reaction modulus, showing the coefficients of correlation greather than 0.7 in most cases. Additionally, the applicability of existing methods for the end bearing capacity of piles in rock was verified by comparison with the field test data.

• Journal of the Korean earth science society
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• v.25 no.1
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• pp.22-31
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• 2004

Laboratory experiments were conducted in order to find effects of the intermediate principal stress of ${\sigma}_{2}$ on rock fractures and faults. Polyaxial tests were carried out under the most generalized compressive stress conditions, in which different magnitudes of the least and intermediate principal stresses ${\sigma}_{3}$ and ${\sigma}_{2}$ were maintained constant, and the maximum stress ${\sigma}_{1}$, was increased to failure. Two crystalline rocks (Westerly granite and KTB amphibolite) exhibited similar mechanical behavior, much of which is neglected in conventional triaxial compression tests in which ${\sigma}_{2}$ = ${\sigma}_{3}$. Compressive rock failure took the form of a main shear fracture, or fault, steeply dipping in ${\sigma}_{3}$ direction with its strike aligned with ${\sigma}_{2}$ direction. Rock strength rose significantly with the magnitude of ${\sigma}_{2}$, suggesting that the commonly used Mohr-type failure criteria, which ignore the ${\sigma}_{2}$ effect, predict only the lower limit of rock strength for a given ${\sigma}_{3}$ level. The true triaxial failure criterion for each of the crystalline rocks can be expressed as the octahedral shear stress at failure as a function of the mean normal stress acting on the fault plane. It is found that the onset of dilatancy increases considerably for higher ${\sigma}_{2}$. Thus, ${\sigma}_{2}$ extends the elastic range for a given ${\sigma}_{3}$ and, hence, retards the onset of the failure process. SEM inspection of the micromechanics leading to specimen failure showed a multitude of stress-induced microcracks localized on both sides of the through-going fault. Microcracks gradually align themselves with the ${\sigma}_{1}$-${\sigma}_{2}$ plane as the magnitude of ${\sigma}_{2}$ is raised.

• Proceedings of the Korean Geotechical Society Conference
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• 2002.03a
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• pp.695-702
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• 2002

Groundwater flow is primarily influenced by the presence of fractures, functioning as conduits. To block the flow, grouting operation is commonly used. Thereby the fractures are then expected to be sealed, which will add to enhance the shear strength in rock. This far, regarding the assessment of grouting efficiency, however, there's been a considerable uncertainty That is, several geophysical methods of high resolution such as tomography, S-wave logging have produced a significant amount of measurable response caused by grouting, but they can inevitably be used only for the qualitative assessment. Thus, this paper deals with an accurate quantitative assessment about the grouting result. In this, a new strategy is introduced, based mainly on evaluating the opening of fractures. For fracture-opening investigation purposes, borehole Televiewer has already proven to be an excellent logging technique that produces both amplitude image and traveltime image. As well known, the traveltime image can be converted to a high precision 3D caliper log with max. 288 arms, which allows to observe the opening of fractures. To evaluate the fracture opening from the traveltime image, an algorithm of practical use was developed, in which image correction due to the borehole deviation, feature discrimination of wall roughness from fractures, automatic evaluation procedure etc. were considered. Field examples are shown to confirm the efficiency of the suggested method.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.13 no.4
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• pp.671-683
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• 2017

Groundwater control is a significant issue in most underground construction. An estimate of the inflow rate is required to size the pumping system, and treatment plant facilities for construction planning and cost assessment. An estimate of the excavation-induced drawdown of the initial groundwater level is required to evaluate potential environmental impacts. Analytical and empirical methods used in current engineering practice do not adequately account for the effect of the jointed-rock-mass anisotropy and heterogeneity. The impact of geostructural anisotropy of fractured rocks on tunnel inflows is addressed and the limitations of analytical solutions assuming isotropic hydraulic conductivity are discussed. In this paper the unexcavated Zagros tunnel route has been classified from groundwater flow point of view based on the combination of observed water inflow and numerical modeling results. Results show that, in this hard rock tunnel, flow usually concentrates in some areas, and much of the tunnel is dry. So the remaining unexcavated Zagros tunnel route has been categorized into three categories including high Risk, moderately risk and low risk. Results show that around 60 m of tunnel (3%) length can conduit the large amount of water into tunnel and categorized into high risk zone and about 45% of tunnel route has moderately risk. The reason is that, in this tunnel, most of the water flows in rock fractures and fractures typically occur in a clustered pattern rather than in a regular or random pattern.