• Journal of Korean Tunnelling and Underground Space Association
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• v.4 no.3
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• pp.229-234
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• 2002

Nowadays, the blast method is mainly operated in the fields of the rock excavation accompanied by construction site in Korea. Blast method has many merits such as improvement of workability, reducement of operation period, and etc. However, blast operation also create much loss and troubles with the neighbours for the environmental pollutions such as the noise, blast vibration, fly rocks and dusts. Thus, the non-vibration and shallow vibration methods have been used but they have also another problems in the view of the economy and the efficiency in operation. In this study, we had made laboratory tests for the breaking of the various Rock types by White Light Thermal Stress. The tests shows that one unit consuming 500kilowatts of electricity, would go 90 feet a day in tunneling if the tunnel was 16 feet by 16 feet. Also, if a faster rate of tunneling could be handled, other white light units could be added.

• The Journal of Engineering Geology
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• v.31 no.4
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• pp.719-730
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• 2021

An improved packer and injection system was developed to improve the efficiency of excavation by hydraulic rock splitting by reducing vibration and noise. Field testing of the system found hydraulic fractures limited in expansion and extension due to the loss of injection pressure by leackage from the cracks, and then the single packer applied to injection hole allowed to produce a sufficient tensile displacement for rock excavation. Numerical analysis based on the field test data could explain the development of cracks in the field experiments.

• 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.