• Proceedings of the Korean Society for Rock Mechanics Conference
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• 2011.09a
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• pp.23-33
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• 2011

The key features of an intelligent and dynamic design methodology for rock engineering projects has been introduced and summarized firstly, which include some new functions such as intelligent recognition of mechanical rockmass parameters, strategies to select modeling methods and codes, integrated feedback modeling and information, and technical auditing in rock engineering design process. Then typical examples of applications of the dynamic design methodology in some large slopes, underground powerhouses in China are summarized. The discussions are given for the future of the methodology.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society for Rock Mechanics Conference
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• 2011.09a
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• pp.89-97
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• 2011

Brittle failure of rock is a classical rock mechanics problem. Rock failure not only involves initiation and propagation of single crack, but also is a complex problem associated with initiation, propagation and coalescence of many cracks. As the most important feature of rock material properties is the heterogeneity, the Weibull statistical distribution is employed in the rock failure process analysis (RFPA) method to describe the heterogeneity in rock properties. In this paper, the applications of the RFPA method in geotechnical engineering and rockburst modeling are introduced with emphasis, which can provide some references for relevant researches.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society for Rock Mechanics Conference
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• 2011.09a
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• pp.3-21
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• 2011

Laboratory experiments and numerical simulations using Particle Flow Code (PFC2D) were performed to study the effects of joint separation and joint overlapping on the full failure behavior of rock bridges under direct shear loading. Through numerical direct shear tests, the failure process is visually observed and the failure patterns are achieved with reasonable conformity with the experimental results. The simulation results clearly showed that cracks developed during the test were predominantly tension cracks. It was deduced that the failure pattern was mostly influenced by both of the joint separation and joint overlapping while the shear strength is closely related to the failure pattern and its failure mechanism. The studies revealed that shear strength of rock bridges are increased with increasing in the joint separation. Also, it was observed that for a fixed cross sectional area of rock bridges, shear strength of overlapped joints are less than the shear strength of non-overlapped joints.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society for Rock Mechanics Conference
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• 2007.03a
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• pp.29-40
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• 2007

• Proceedings of the Korean Society for Rock Mechanics Conference
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• 2007.10a
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• pp.227-237
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• 2007

• Proceedings of the Korean Geotechical Society Conference
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• 2009.09a
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• pp.591-604
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• 2009

This paper presents some important issues in modeling rock behaviour around an underground opening at depth which characterized as stress-induced fractural failure of rock. Unlike other conventional modeling approaches, stress-induced rock failure is highly complex process due to its own heterogeneous and discrete natures. Because of this complexity, many researchers has been struggled to mimic such processes as close as possible to reality with various approaches in both analytical, and numerical approaches for past few decades. Such approaches which are based on continuum mechanics, analytical fracture mechanics, and DEM(Discrete Element Method) were explored in this paper, and fundamental shortcomings for each approaches were illustrated here. In addition, DEM approach using $PFC^{2D}$(Particle Flow Code) was also implemented and illuminated in this paper and discuss the improvement and considerations for the future research.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.29 no.4
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• pp.535-547
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• 2022

Failure patterns of rock specimens represent valuable information about the mechanical properties and crack evolution mechanism of rock. Several kinds of research have been conducted regarding the failure mechanism of brittle material, however; the influence of brittleness on the failure mechanism of rock specimens has not been precisely considered. In the present study, experimental and numerical examinations have been made to evaluate the physical and mechanical phenomena associated with rock failure mechanisms through the uniaxial compression test. In the experimental part, Unconfined Compressive Strength (UCS) tests equipped with Acoustic Emission (AE) have been conducted on rock samples with three different brittleness. Then, the numerical models have been calibrated based on experimental test results for further investigation and comparing the micro-cracking process in experimental and numerical models. It can be perceived that the failure mode of specimens with high brittleness is tensile axial splitting, based on the experimental evidence of rock specimens with different brittleness. Also, the crack growth mechanism of the rock specimens with various brittleness using discrete element modeling in the numerical part suggested that the specimens with more brittleness contain more tensile fracture during the loading sequences.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society for Rock Mechanics Conference
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• 2006.03a
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• pp.79-93
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• 2006

It is well known that acoustic emission (AE) is indicator of rock fracturing or damage as rock is brought to failure under the uniaxial compressive loads. In this paper, an experimental study on the source location of acoustic emission on the cylindrical specimens of granite under uniaxial compression test was made. The AE source location was made by measuring the six channel AE data. Comparing to this experiment, the numerical method is applied to model the initiation and propagation of fracture by AE using a numerical code, RFPA (Realistic Failure Process Analysis). This code incorporates the mesoscopic heterogeneity in Young's modulus and rock strength characteristic of rock masses. In the numerical models, values of Young's modulus and rock strength are realized according to a Weibull distribution in which the distribution parameters represent the level of heterogeneity of the medium. The results of the simulations show that RFPA can be used not only to produce acoustic emission similar to those measurements in our experiments, but also to predict fracturing patterns under uniaxial loading condition.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.34 no.1
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• pp.103-113
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• 2023

This study focused on understanding the relationship between the design of a tunnel boring machine disc cutter ring and its rock-breaking efficiency, as well as the applicable conditions of different cutter ring types. The discrete element method was used to establish a numerical model of the rock-breaking process using disc cutters with different ring types to reveal the development of rock damage cracks and variation in cutter penetration load. The calculation results indicate that a sharp-edged (V-shaped) disc cutter penetrates a rock mass to a given depth with the lowest load, resulting in more intermediate cracks and few lateral cracks, which leads to difficulty in crack combination. Furthermore, the poor wear resistance of a conventional V-shaped cutter can lead to an exponential increase in the penetration load after cutter ring wear. In contrast, constant-cross-section (CCS) disc cutters have the highest quantity of crack extensions after penetrating rock, but also require the highest penetration loads. An arch-edged (U-shaped) disc cutter is more moderate than the aforementioned types with sufficient intermediate and lateral crack propagation after cutting into rock under a suitable penetration load. Additionally, we found that the cutter ring wedge angle and edge width heavily influence cutter rock-breaking efficiency and that a disc cutter with a 16 to 22 mm edge width and 20° to 30° wedge angle exhibits high performance. Compared to V-shaped and U-shaped cutters, the CCS cutter is more suitable for soft or medium-strength rocks, where the penetration load is relatively small. Additionally, two typical case studies were selected to verify that replacing a CCS cutter with a U-shaped or optimized V-shaped disc cutter can increase cutting efficiency when encountering hard rocks.

• Interaction and multiscale mechanics
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• v.4 no.1
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• pp.49-64
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• 2011

A methodology for jointed rock mass characterization starts with a research based on geological data and tests in order to define the geotechnical models used to support the decision about location, orientation and shape of cavities. Afterwards a more detailed characterization of the rock mass is performed allowing the update of the geomechanical parameters defined in the previous stage. The observed results can be also used to re-evaluate the geotechnical model using inverse methodologies. Cases of large underground structures modeling are presented. The first case concerns the modeling of cavities in volcanic formations. Then, an application to a large station from the Metro do Porto project developed in heterogeneous granite formations is also presented. Finally, the last case concerns the modeling of large cavities for a hydroelectric powerhouse complex. The finite element method and finite difference method software used is acquired from Rocscience and ITASCA, respectively.