• Explosives and Blasting
• /
• v.24 no.1
• /
• pp.63-69
• /
• 2006

Building tunnels means dealing with what rock is encountered. Relocation of the site of the underground structure is rarely possible. Tunneling engineers and miners have to cope with the quality of the rock mass as it is. Different tunneling philosophies and different rock classification methods have been developed in various countries. Most of the rock classification methods are based on the response of the rock mass to the excavation. Tunnel support requirements could be assessed analytically, supplemented by rock mass classification predictions, and verified by measurements during construction. Rock mass classifications on their own should only be used for preliminary, planning purposes and not for final tunnel support. Design of blast pattern in tunneling projects in Korea is also mostly prepared according to the general rock classification methods such as RMR or Q. They, however, do not take into account the blast performance, and as a consequence, produce poor blasting results. In this paper, the methods of general rock classification and blast design for tunnel excavation in Korea are reviewed, and efforts to develop a new classification method, reflecting the blasting performance, are presented.

• Tunnel and Underground Space
• /
• v.14 no.2
• /
• pp.142-153
• /
• 2004

To investigate the influence of the rock mass inhomogeneity caused by layer geometry on the regional stress distribution the cuboid models considering a homogenous rock mass, inhomogeneous rock mass with plane layers and with uneven layers were analyzed and discussed. It was confirmed that the structure and existence of layers in rock mass affected the regional stress distribution. An approach based on an inverse analysis of the measured local stresses and the 3D finite element analysis was suggested, and used to estimate the regional stress field of the homogeneous and inhomogeneous models, which consist of the surface geometry of ground and both the surface and layer geometry respectively. Additionally, the approach of the regional stress considering the layer geometry in the rock mass was verified to estimate the regional stress field for a site.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
• /
• v.30 no.7
• /
• pp.41-53
• /
• 2014

This study examined the magnitude and distribution of the earth pressure on the support system in a jointed rock mass by considering different joint shear strength, rock type, and joint inclination angle. The study particularly focused on the effect of joint cohesive strength for a certain condition. Based on a physical model test (Son and Park, 2014), extended parametric studies were conducted considering rock-structure interactions based on the discrete element method, which can consider the rock and joint characteristics of rock mass. The results showed the earth pressure was strongly affected by the joint cohesive strength as well as the rock type and joint inclination angle. The study indicated that the effect of joint cohesive strength was particularly significant when a rock mass was under the condition of joint sliding. This paper investigates the magnitude of joint cohesive strength to prevent a joint sliding for each different condition. The test results were also compared with Peck's earth pressure, which has been frequently used for soil ground. The comparison indicated that the earth pressure in a jointed rock mass can be significantly different from that in soil ground. This study is expected to provide a better understanding of the earth pressure on the support system in a jointed rock mass.

• Proceedings of the Korean Geotechical Society Conference
• /
• 2008.10a
• /
• pp.629-640
• /
• 2008

South anchorage(AN1, Myodo side) of supension bridge between Myodo and Gwangyang is designed as rock anchorage with 36m anchor length using the resistance of rock mass in Myodo. Checking the overall stability of the anchorage, we considered rock joints, bedding planes, fault zones and condition of rock structure in situ by analysis results for photo-lineaments, aerial photograph interpretation and drill-hole logs are considered. This anchorage consists of an access shaft, adit, and the upper and lower concrete bearing plate to introduce pre-stressing force into rock mass.

• 한국지구물리탐사학회:학술대회논문집
• /
• 2003.11a
• /
• pp.255-261
• /
• 2003

Tunnelling in poor and heterogeneous ground is a difficult task. Even with a good geological investigation, uncertainties with respect to the local rock mass structure will remain. Especially for such conditions, a reliable short-term prediction of the conditions ahead and outside the tunnel profile are of paramount importance for the choice of appropriate excavation and support methods. The information contained in the absolute displacement monitoring data allows a comprehensive evaluation of the displacements and the determination of the behaviour and influence of an anisotropic rock mass. Case histories and with numerical simulations show, that changes in the displacement vector orientation can indicate changing rock mass conditions ahead of the tunnel face (Schubert & Budil 1995, Steindorfer & Schubert 1997). Further research has been conducted to quantify the influence of weak zones on stresses and displacements (Grossauer 2001). Sellner (2000) developed software, which allows predicting displacements (GeoFit$\circledR$). The function parameters describe the time and advance dependent deformation of a tunnel. Routinely applying this method at each measuring section allows determining trends of those parameters. It shows, that the trends of parameter sets indicate changes in the stiffness of the rock mass outside the tunnel in a similar way, as the displacement vector orientation does. Three-dimensional Finite Element simulations of different weakness zone properties, thicknesses, and orientations relative to the tunnel axis were carried out and the function parameters evaluated from the results. The results are compared to monitoring results from alpine tunnels in heterogeneous rock. The good qualitative correlation between trends observed on site and numerical results gives hope that by a routine determination of the function parameters during excavation the prediction of rock mass conditions ahead of the tunnel face can be improved. Implementing the rules developed from experience and simulations into the monitoring data evaluation program allows to automatically issuing information on the expected rock mass quality ahead of the tunnel.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
• /
• v.11 no.1
• /
• pp.77-94
• /
• 2016

A forked tunnel, as a special complicated underground structure, is composed of big-arch tunnel, multi-arch tunnel, neighborhood tunnels and separate tunnels according to the different distances between two separate tunnels. Due to the complicated process of design and construction, surrounding jointed rock mass stability of the big-arch tunnel which belongs to the forked tunnel during excavation is a hot issue that needs special attentions. In this paper, an elasto-plastic damage constitutive model for jointed rock mass is proposed based on the coupling method considering elasto-plastic and damage theories, and the irreversible thermodynamics theory. Based on this elasto-plastic damage constitutive model, a three dimensional elasto-plastic damage finite element code (D-FEM) is implemented using Visual Fortran language, which can numerically simulate the whole excavation process of underground project and perform the structural stability of the surrounding rock mass. Comparing with a popular commercial computer code, three dimensional fast Lagrangian analysis of continua (FLAC3D), this D-FEM has advantages in terms of rapid computing process, element grouping function and providing more material models. After that, FLAC3D and D-FEM are simultaneously used to perform the structural stability analysis of the surrounding rock mass in the forked tunnel considering three different computing schemes. The final numerical results behave almost consistent using both FLAC3D and D-FEM. But from the point of numerically obtained damage softening areas, the numerical results obtained by D-FEM more closely approach the practical behaviors of in-situ surrounding rock mass.

• The Journal of Engineering Geology
• /
• v.11 no.1
• /
• pp.101-113
• /
• 2001

Structural and geological engineering properties of the rock mass distributed in the Yokmang mountain area were investigated to detenninc the usable cut-out volume and quarrying efficiency. The study area is located in the southern tip of the Yangsan fault system which controls the geological structure of the Kvungsang basin. As a result, the study area is mainly composed of andesicic. rhyolitic. and granitic rocks of the Cretaceous Kyungsang Supergroup and a series of right-handed strike-slip faults is developed along NNE-SSW direction. These regional faults significantly affect the spatial and meclwnical characteristics of joints such as spacing, frequency, and compressive strength. The joint frequency is highest along the fault zones and decreases toward the remote region. Based on the geological information obtained from the field survey, the detailed structure of the Yokmang mountain was analyzed and the volume of the rock mass was assessed. Considering the minimum rock block size required for the construction of a coastal dumping site, potential cut-out volume is then estimated to be 4,018,000m$^3$ the volume % of which is 48% of Yokmang mountain including the soil and weathered rock and 61% of the unweathered rock mass.

• Tunnel and Underground Space
• /
• v.3 no.1
• /
• pp.63-79
• /
• 1993

The design of tunnels in rock masses often demands more informations on geologic features and rock mass properties than acquired by usual field survey and laboratory testings. In practice, the situation that a perfect set of geological and mechanical input data is given to geomechanics design engineer is rare, while the engineers are asked to achieve a high level of reliability in their design products. This study presents an artificial neural network which is developed to resolve the difficulties encountered in conventional design techniques, particulary the problem of deteriorating the confidence of existing numerical techniques such as the finite element, boundary element and distinct element methods due to the incomplete adn vague input data. The neural network has inferring capabilities to identify the possible failure modes, support requirements and its timing for underground openings, from previous case histories. Use of the neural network has resulted in a better estimate of the correlation between systems of rock mass classifications such as the RMR and Q systems. A back propagation learning algorithm together with a multi-layer network structure is adopted to enhance the inferential accuracy and efficiency of the neural network. A series of experiments comparing the results of the neural network with the actual field observations are performed to demonstrate the abilities of the artificial neural network as a new tunnel design assistance system.

• Tunnel and Underground Space
• /
• v.8 no.4
• /
• pp.342-350
• /
• 1998

In this study, fracture network in rock mass was interpreted using borehole wall images obtained by televiewer. The orientation and JRC value of major joint set were evaluated adopting image analysis techniques, of which process were written in macro-program code. As linking JRC to joint stiffness using Barton-Bandis model, fracture network map was produced for application to jointed rock modelling in numerical analysis of underground structure.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
• /
• v.21 no.1
• /
• pp.63-71
• /
• 2020

Strength anisotropy is a typical feature of thin-bedded rock masses and their strength will be degraded subjected to water immersion effect. Such effect is crucial for the operation of hydropower plant because the impoundment lifts the water level of upstream reservoir and causes the rock mass of nearby slopes saturated. So far, researches regarding mechanical property of natural thin-bedded rock masses and their strength variation under water immersion based on field test method are rarely reported. This paper focuses on a thin-bedded stratified rock mass and carries out field test to investigate the mechanical property and strength variation characteristics. The field test is highlighted by samples which have a large shear dimension of 0.5 m*0.5 m, representing a more realistic in-situ situation than small size specimen. The test results confirm the anisotropic nature of the concerned rock mass, whose shear strength of host rocks is significantly larger than that of bedding planes. Further, the comparison of shear strength parameters of the thin-bedded rock mass under natural and saturated conditions show that for both host rocks and bedding planes, the decreasing extent of cohesion values are larger than friction values. The quantitative results are then adopted to analyze the influence of reservoir impoundment of a hydropower plant on the surrounding rock mass stability of diversion tunnels which are located in the nearby slope bank. It is evaluated that after reservoir impoundment, the strength degradation induced incremental deformations of surrounding rock mass of diversion tunnels are small and the stresses in lining structure are acceptable. It is therefore concluded that the influences of impoundment are small and the stability of diversion tunnels can be still achieved. The finings regarding field test method and its results, as well as the numerical evaluation conclusions are hoped to provide references for rock projects with similar concerns.