• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.22 no.6
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• pp.71-82
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• 2006

One of the most popular pre-reinforcement methods of tunnel heading in cohesionless soils would be the fore-polling of grouted pipes, known as RPUM (reinforced protective umbrella method) or UAM (umbrella arch method). This technique allows safe excavation even in poor ground conditions by creating longitudinal arch parallel to the tunnel axis as the tunnel advances. Some previous studies on the reinforcing effects have been performed using numerical methods and/or laboratory-based small scale model tests. The complexity of boundary conditions imposes difficulties in representing the tunnelling procedure in laboratory tests and theoretical approaches. Full-scale study to identify reinforcing effects of the tunnel heading has rarely been carried out so far. In this study, a large scale model testing for a tunnel in granular soils was performed. Reinforcing patterns considered are four cases, Non-Reinforced, Crown-Reinforced, Crown & Face-Reinforced, and Face-Reinforced. The behavior of ground and pipes as reinforcing member were fully measured as the surcharge pressure applied. The influences of reinforcing pattern, pipe length, and face reinforcement were investigated in terms of stress and displacement. It is revealed that only the Face-Reinforced has decreased sufficiently both vertical settlement in tunnel heading and horizontal displacement on the face. Vertical stresses along the tunnel axis were concentrated in tunnel heading from the test results, so the heading should be reinforced before tunnel advancing. Most of maximum axial forces and bending moments for Crown-reinforced were measured at 0.75D from the face. Also it should be recommended that the minimum length of the pipe is more than l.0D for crown reinforcement.

• Journal of Korean Tunnelling and Underground Space Association
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• v.13 no.4
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• pp.347-370
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• 2011

Slurry type shield would be very effective for the tunnelling in a sandy ground, when the slurry pressure would be properly adjusted. Low slurry pressure could cause a tunnel face failure or a ground settlement in front of the tunnel face. Thus, the stability of tunnel face could be maintained by applying an excess slurry pressure that is larger than the active earth pressure. However, the slurry pressure should increase properly because an excessively high slurry pressure could cause the slurry flow out or the passive failure of the frontal ground. It is possible to apply the high slurry pressure without passive failure if a horizontal impermeable layer is located in the ground in front of the tunnel face, but its location, size, and effects are not clearly known yet. In this research, two-dimensional model tests were carried out in order to find out the effect of a horizontal impermeable layer for the slurry shield tunnelling in a saturated sandy ground. In tests slurry pressure was increased until the slurry flowed out of the ground surface or the ground fails. Location and dimension of the impermeable layer were varied. As results, the maximum and the excess slurry pressure in sandy ground were linearly proportional to the cover depth. Larger slurry pressure could be applied to increase the stability of the tunnel face when the impermeable layer was located in the ground above the crown in front of the tunnel face. The most effective length of the impermeable grouting layer was 1.0 ~ 1.5D, and the location was 1.0D above the crown level. The safety factor could be suggested as the ratio of the maximum slurry pressure to the active earth pressure at the tunnel face. It could also be suggested that the slurry pressure in the magnitude of 3.5 ~4.0 times larger than the active earth pressure at the initial tunnel face could be applied if the impermeable layer was constructed at the optimal location.

• Tunnel and Underground Space
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• v.15 no.1 s.54
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• pp.39-46
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• 2005

The RMR ratings, one by horizontal pre-boring in a tunnel and another by tunnel face mapping, are compared at the fault zone in a tunnel. Generally. the horizontal pre-borings were so effective as to forecast reasonably the supporting patterns after tunnel excavation. But the maximum difference in RMR ratings estimated by two methods was about 50 at a certain section of a tunnel. The differences were analyzed on each parameter of the RMR system: the rating differences were 24 in the condition of discontinuities, 15 in the RQD and 13 in the uniaxial compressive strength of rock. To minimize the gap between RMR by pre-borings and by face mappings, it is necessary to select the horizontal pre-boring location where tunnel stability could be critical and to evaluate in detail the sub-parameters of the condition of discontinuities.

• Tunnel and Underground Space
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• v.13 no.6
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• pp.476-485
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• 2003

The purpose of this study is to present an analysis method for the prediction of the change of ground conditions. To this end, three-dimensional convergence displacements is analyzed in several ways to estimate the trend of displacement change. Three-dimensional arching effect is occurred around the unsupported excavation surface including tunnel face when a tunnel is excavated in a stable rock mass. If the ground condition ahead of tunnel face changes or a weak fracture zone exists a specific trend of displacement change is known to be occurred from the results of the existing researches. The existence of a discontinuity, whose change in front of the tunnel face, can be predicted from the ratio of L/C (longitudinal displacement at crown divided by settlement at crown) etc. Therefore, the change of ground condition and the existence of a fracture zone ahead of tunnel face can be predicted by monitoring three-dimensional absolute displacements during excavation, and applying the methodology presented in this study.

• The Journal of Engineering Geology
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• v.18 no.4
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• pp.545-553
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• 2008

Face mapping and displacement monitoring during tunnel construction are the most influential information for the stability assessment of ground and around structures. Especially, the result of face mapping and displacement analysis is essential to the excavation and support design in NATM which is based on the drilling and blasting. However, there have not been so many studies to put those useful information into practice for decision-making process during construction. The study reviewed the tunnel behaviour based on the RMR rating and displacement monitoring when the geological condition of rock mass varies inevitably. The study analysed the crown settlement using convergence equation in order to compensate the disparity induced by the location and time of measurement and found a distinct relation between the geological condition and the line of influence. As a result of analysing the various parameters related to the tunnel convergence according to the geological condition, the study suggested the basic knowledge about the relation between face mapping and displacement behaviour of tunnel.

• Explosives and Blasting
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• v.31 no.2
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• pp.40-49
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• 2013

To predict ground conditions ahead of the tunnel face, seismic refraction survey has been widely used. But due to the development in seismic equipment and techniques, tomography using borehole and others are actively applied in recent years. This study has a purpose to prevent stability problems during excavation and construction of tunnels by predicting unfavorable ground conditions such as fault, fractured zone and rock quality variation zone ahead of the tunnel face using TSP survey equipment. In this study, the validity of predicting ground conditions ahead of tunnel face by TSP survey has been evaluated through the case study in the road construction site.

• Tunnel and Underground Space
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• v.15 no.2 s.55
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• pp.102-110
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• 2005

○ ○ tunnel that is located at Iksan - Jangsu freeway ○ ○, has collapsed during construction at the valley with shallow depth. Although, the site investigations, such as TSP, drilling exploration and so of indicated the presence of discontinuities in this section. The RMR was upgraded and the construction were carried out because that not only actual rock qualities were relatively good during construction but also the tunnel foe was stabilized. However, the tunnel was collapsed at the same time blasting of full face, and surface and underground water was infiltrated due to the settlement of the upper part of the tunnel face. To restore the collapsed section, 3-d tunnel stability analysis was performed and suitable reinforcement methods were chosen. The cavity of the upper tunnel face was stabilized by means of UAM and ALC injection. And the settlement was restored using L.W grouting method.

• Journal of Korean Tunnelling and Underground Space Association
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• v.24 no.2
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• pp.217-230
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• 2022

The adequate control of TBM face pressure is of vital importance to maintain face stability by preventing face collapse and surface settlement. An EPB shield TBM excavates the ground by applying face pressure with the excavated soil in the pressure chamber. One of the challenges during the EPB shield TBM operation is the control of face pressure due to difficulty in managing the excavated soil. In this study, the face pressure of an EPB shield TBM was predicted using the geological and operational data acquired from a domestic TBM tunnel site. Four machine learning algorithms: KNN (K-Nearest Neighbors), SVM (Support Vector Machine), RF (Random Forest), and XGB (eXtreme Gradient Boosting) were applied to predict the face pressure. The model comparison results showed that the RF model yielded the lowest RMSE (Root Mean Square Error) value of 7.35 kPa. Therefore, the RF model was selected as the optimal machine learning algorithm. In addition, the feature importance of the RF model was analyzed to evaluate appropriately the influence of each feature on the face pressure. The water pressure indicated the highest influence, and the importance of the geological conditions was higher in general than that of the operation features in the considered site.

• Magazine of korean Tunnelling and Underground Space Association
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• v.18 no.3
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• pp.5-19
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• 2016

• Geotechnical Engineering
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• v.24 no.2
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• pp.35-45
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• 2008