• Tunnel and Underground Space
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• v.15 no.1 s.54
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• pp.47-54
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• 2005

One of the standard procedures of discontinuity survey is the joint set identification from the population of field orientation data. Discontinuity set identification is fundamental to rock engineering tasks such as rock mass classification, discrete element analysis, key block analysis. and discrete fracture network modeling. Conventionally, manual method using contour plot had been widely used for this task, but this method has some short-comings such as yielding subjective identification results, manual operations, and so on. In this study, the method of discontinuity set identification using genetic algorithm was introduced, but slightly modified to handle the orientation data. Finally, based on the genetic algorithm, we developed a FORTRAN program, Genetic Algorithm based Clustering(GAC) and applied it to two different discontinuity data sets. Genetic Algorithm based Clustering(GAC) was proved to be a fast and efficient method for the discontinuity set identification task. In addition, fitness function based on variance showed more efficient performance in finding the optimal number of clusters when compared with Davis - Bouldin index.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.37 no.2
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• pp.33-48
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• 2021

The rock anchorage of a suspension bridge is an outstanding anchorage type from environmental and economical perspective, although it should be applied when the bearing foundation is fresh enough to resist large cable loads. In practice, geotechnical engineers have encountered difficulties in designing the anchorage structure due to the fact that the physical behaviors of rocks against cable loads have not yet been fully proved and its design method was not established yet. In this study, model tests and numerical studies were performed to evaluate the behavior of the rock anchorage system planned under hard rock layers in domestic islands, and results suggest that the shape of asymmetric rock wedges can resist the tension loads with self weight and shear resistance. Additionally, real scale trial tests were carried out to verify the accuracy of an inclined drilling penetrating hard rock layers to install tendon to the bearing plate.

• Tunnel and Underground Space
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• v.17 no.6
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• pp.464-474
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• 2007

An enhancement in the performance and safety of a high-level waste repository requires a validation of its engineered barrier. An engineering-scale test (named "KENTEX") has been conducted to investigate the thermal-hydro-mechanical behaviors in the engineered barrier of the Korean reference disposal system The validation test started on May 31, 2005 and is still under operation. The experimental data obtained allowed a preliminary and qualitative interpretation of the thermal-hydro-mechanical behaviors in the bentonite blocks. The temperature was higher as it became closer to the heater, while it became lower as it was farther away from the heater. The water content had a higher value in the part close to the hydration surface than that in the heater part. The relative humidity data suggested that a hydration of the bentonite blocks might occur by different drying-wetting processes, depending on their position. The total pressure was continuously increased by the evolution of the saturation front in the bentonite blocks and thereby the swelling pressure. Near the heater region, there was also a significant contribution of the thermal expansion of bentonite and the vapor pressure in the pores of the bentonite blocks.

• Tunnel and Underground Space
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• v.20 no.6
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• pp.434-445
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• 2010

Underground compressed air energy storage (CAES) system in a lined rock cavern is considered one of the promising large-scale energy storage technologies. In this study, permeabilities of concrete lining block and its construction joint, which are the major components of an air tightness system of the undeground CAES, were measured from a model experiment. From the experiment, it was found that intrinsic permeability of construction joint was larger than that of concrete block by the order scale of $10^1{\sim}10^4$, so that it would be very important to control the quality of construction joints in-situ in order to secure air tightness of storage system. And the permeability of construction joint could be decreased as low as that of the concrete block by pasting an acryl-type adhesive on bonding surfaces. Higher degrees of water saturation of the concrete block resulted in the lower permeability, which is more preferable in the viewpoint of air tightness of storage cavern.

• Economic and Environmental Geology
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• v.38 no.3 s.172
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• pp.305-317
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• 2005

This study addresses the preliminary results of rock slope stability analyses including hazard assessments for slope failure conducted on the selected sections of rural road cut slope which are about 4 km long. The study area is located in the Mt. Chuntae northeast of Busan and mainly composed of Cretaceous rhyolitic ash-flow tuff', fallout tuff, rhyolitc and andesite. The volcanic rock mass in the area has a number of discontinuities that produce a potentially unstable slope, as the present cut slope is more than 70 degrees in most of the slope sections. Discontinuity geometry data were collected at selected 8 scanline sections and analyzed to estimate important discontinuity geometry parameters to perform rock slope kinematic and block theory analyses. Kinematic analysis for plane sliding has resulted in maximum safe slope angles greater than $65^{\circ}$ for most of the discontinuities. For most of the wedges, maximum safe cut slope angles greater than $45^{\circ}$ were obtained. Maximum safe slope angles greater than 80" were obtained fur most of the discontinuities in the toppling case. The block theory analysis resulted in the identification of potential key blocks (type II) in the SL4, SL5, SL6 and SL8 sections. The chance of sliding taking place through a type ll block under a combined gravitational and external loading is quite high in the investigated area. The results support in-field observations of a potentially unstable slope that could become hazardous under external forces. The results obtained through limit equilibrium slope stability analyses show how a stable slope can become an unstable slope as the water pressure acting on joints increases and how a stable slope under Barton's shear strength criterion can fail as the worst case scenario of using Mohr-Coulomb criterion.

• Tunnel and Underground Space
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• v.11 no.2
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• pp.156-166
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• 2001

A stochastic continuum(SC) modeling technique was developed to simulate the groundwater flow pathway in fractured rocks. This model was developed to overcome the disadvantageous points of discrete fracture network(DFN) modes which has the limitation of fracture numbers. Besides, SC model is able to perform probabilistic analysis and to simulate the conductive groundwater pathway as discrete fracture network model. The SC model was formulated based on the discrete fracture network(DFN) model. The spatial distribution of permeability in the stochastic continuum model was defined by the probability distribution and variogram functions defined from the permeabilities of subdivided smaller blocks of the DFN model. The analysis of groundwater travel time was performed to show the consistency between DFN and SC models by the numerical experiment. It was found that the stochastic continuum modes was an appropriate way to provide the probability density distribution of groundwater velocity which is required for the probabilistic safety assessment of a radioactive waste disposal facility.

• Journal of Nuclear Fuel Cycle and Waste Technology(JNFCWT)
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• v.3 no.4
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• pp.341-348
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• 2005

Bentonite has been considered as a candidate buffer material in the underground repository for the disposal of high-level radioactive waste because of its low permeability, high sorption capacity, self sealing characteristics, and durability in nature. In this study, the potential for separation of bentonite particles caused by the groundwater erosion was studied experimentally for a Korean Ca-bentonite under the relevant repository conditions. Results showed that bentonite particles can be generated at the bentonite/granite interface and mobilized by the water flow although the intrusion of bentonite into fracture by swelling pressure was observed to be small. Different processes of mobilization of theses colloids from the compacted bentonite block have been identified in this study. The concentration of particles eluted in water was increased as the flow rate increased. Thus the result reveals that the erosion of the bentonite surface due to the groundwater flow together with intrusion processes is the main mechanism that can mobilize bentonite colloids in the fracture of the granite.

• Tunnel and Underground Space
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• v.20 no.4
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• pp.299-307
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• 2010

The model experiments, which employ a charge hole and guide hole, are simulated to examine the effect of the guide hole on the crack propagation control in blasting. Crack patterns resulted from the analysis models, which consider the distance between the charge hole and guide hole, were compared. From the simulation analysis for the model experiments, it was revealed that all the guide holes used in this study were effective for controlling the crack propagation in blasting.

• Tunnel and Underground Space
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• v.2 no.2
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• pp.212-223
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• 1992

The distinct element method(DEM) si well suited to the kinematic analysis of blocky rock masses. Two distinctive problems, a rock avalache and tunnel in jointed rock masses, are chosen to apply the DEM which is based on perfectly rigid behaviour of blocks. Investigated for both problems are the effects of the input parameters such as contact stiffnesses, friction coefficient and damping property. Using various types of models of the avalanche and tunne, an extensive parametric study is done to gain experiences in the method, and then to alleviate difficulties in determining parameter values suitable for a given problem. The coefficient of frictio has significant effects on all aspects of avalanche motion(travel distance, velocity and travel time), while the stiffnesses affect the rebounding and jumping motions after collision. The motion predicted by the models having single and mutiple blocks agrees well to the observations reported on the actual avalache. For the tunnel problem, the behaviour of the key block in an example tunnel is compared by testing values of the input parameters. The stability of the tunnel is dependent primarily on the friction coefficient, while the stiffness and damping properties influence the block velocity. The kinematic stability of a tunnel for underground unclear waste repository is analyzed using the joint geometry data(orientation, spacing and persistence) occurred in a tailrace tunnel. Allowing a small deviation to the mean orientation results in different modes of failure of the rock blocks around the tunnel. Of all parameters tested, the most important to the stability of the tunnel in blocky rock masses are the geometry of the blocks generated by mapping the joint and tunnel surfaces in 3-dimensions and also the friction coefficient of the joints particularly for the stability of the side walls.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.18 no.2
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• pp.23-37
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• 2002

Failure of the cut slope is triggered by combination of internal and extemal failure factors. Internal failure factors are related to geological and geometrical conditions of slope itself, and natural and/or artificial loadings on slope can be the external failure factors. Influences of these failure factors show different intensity according to the ground condition and are controlled by behavior characters of the slope. In this study, the soil depth ratio(SR), block size ratio(BR) and rock strength are used as the criteria to divide ground condition based on behavior characteristics. Ground condition of the slope is divided into discontinuous jointed rock mass and continuos soil-like mass, highly fractured rock mass and massive rock mass by the criteria(SR and BR). The SFi-system is a rating system to determine the slope failure index(SFi) by analyzing internal and external factors based on classification of the ground condition. The results of the SFi-system application to the real cut slopes show close relationship between the SFi value and potential or dimension of the failure. Therefore, the SFi-system can be used as a useful tool to predict and analyze the characteristic of the slope failure.