• Tunnel and Underground Space
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• v.9 no.4
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• pp.328-336
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• 1999

To characterize the hydro-mechanical behavior of a rock joint, a rotary shear testing apparatus was devised in this study. Shear stress was driven by twisting the end of a sample in the rotary shear testing apparatus. The test results show that the rotary shear test underestimates the peak shear strength of a rock joint. The torque is known as a function of the radial distance from the axis of rotation, resulting in the radial variation of the shear stress. Fluid flow through rock joints is mainly dependent on the Joint roughness, contact area, initial aperture. To examine the dependency, the relationship between the hydraulic and the mechanical apertures for shear-flow was established by measuring the initial aperture. It shows that the mechanical aperture and the hydraulic aperture increase linearly with the dilatancy. The difference between the hydraulic and mechanical apertures describes the deviation from the behavior predicted by the parallel plate model.

• Tunnel and Underground Space
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• v.24 no.2
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• pp.176-186
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• 2014

Roughness, aperture and filling material of rock joint are widely considered to affect the hydraulic characteristics of joint. Among these factors, in this study, the joint roughness was examined with artificial joint profiles generated by Monte Carlo simulating on the original profiles suggested by Barton and Choubey(1977). Original profiles and revised profiles were combined to establish flow channel models, in which the hydraulic characteristics were analyzed numerically on the basis of minimum aperture changes and flow channel shapes. Maximum flow rate was identified at the growing point of flow area after passing through minimum aperture generated by the two profiles, and it was resulted that maximum flow rate is inversely proportional to minimum aperture. Maximum flow rate per unit area showed different values because flow channel shapes and minimum aperture locations are different in each model. In flow channel, mechanical aperture showed approximately 1.07 ~ 3.00 times larger than hydraulic aperture. In this study, mechanical and hydraulic aperture were concluded to be closely related to $A_i$ value, and their relations can be denoted by $e_m=0.519A^{0.7169_i}$ and $e_h=0.6182A^{0.239}_i$, respectively.

• Journal of Korean Tunnelling and Underground Space Association
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• v.9 no.2
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• pp.133-141
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• 2007

The excavation damaged zone (EDZ) is an area around an excavation where in situ rock mass properties, stress condition, displacement, groundwater flow conditions have been altered due to the processes induced by the excavation. Various studies have been carried out on EDZ, but most studies have focused on the mechanical bahavior of EDZ by in situ experiment. Even though the EDZ could potentially form a high permeable pathway of groundwater flow, only a few studies were performed on the analysis of groundwater flow in EDZ. In this study, the 'hydraulic EDZ' was defined as the rock zone adjacent to the excavation where the hydraulic aperture has been changed due to the excavation by using H-M coupling analysis. Fundamental principles of distinct element method (DEM) were used in the analysis. In the same groundwater level, the behavior of hydraulic aperture near the cavern was analyzed for different stress ratios, initial apertures, fracture angles and fracture spacings by using a two-dimensional DEM program. We evaluate the excavation induced hydraulic aperture change. Using the results of the study, hydraulic EDZ was defined as an elliptical shape model perpendicular to the joint.

• Proceedings of the KSEEG Conference
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• 1999.04a
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• pp.251-253
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• 1999

• Tunnel and Underground Space
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• v.17 no.2 s.67
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• pp.109-118
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• 2007

The excavation damaged zone (EDZ) is an area around an excavation where in situ rock mass properties, stress condition. displacement. groundwater flow conditions have been altered due to the excavation. Various studies have been carried out on EDZ, but most studies have been focused on the mechanical bahavior of EDZ by in situ experiment. Even though the EDZ could potentially form a high permeable pathway of groundwater flow, only a few studies were performed on the analysis of groundwater flow in EDZ. In this study, the' hydraulic EDZ' was defined as the rock Lone adjacent to the excavation where the hydraulic aperture has been changed due to the excavation. And hydraulic EDZ (hydraulic aperture changed zone) estimated by two-dimensional DEM program was considered in three-dimensional DFN model. From this approach the groundwater flow characteristics corresponding to hydraulic aperture change were examined. Together. a parametric study was performed to examine the boundary conditions that frequently used in DFN analysis such as constant head or constant flux condition. According to the numerical analysis, hydraulic aperture change induced by the hydraulic-mechanical interaction becomes one of the most important factors Influencing the hydraulic behavior of jointed rock masses. And also from this study, we suggest the proper boundary condition in three-dimensional DFN model.

• Journal of the Korean GEO-environmental Society
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• v.8 no.4
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• pp.27-39
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• 2007

This paper investigates numerically characteristics of the fluid flow in spatially correlated variable-aperture fractures under effective normal stress conditions. Spatially correlated aperture distributions are generated by using the geostaistical method (i.e. Turning Bands algorithm). In order to represent a nonlinear relationship between the effective normal stress and the fracture aperture, a simple mechanical formula is combined with a local flow model. Obtained numerical results indicate that the fluid flow is significantly affected by the geometry of aperture distribution varying according to the applied effective normal stress as well as the spatial correlation length of aperture distribution. Moreover, by using results simulated in this study, the modified Louis formula representing the relationship between the effective normal stress and the effective permeability of fracture is proposed.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.27 no.11
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• pp.83-92
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• 2011

The random and heterogeneous pore structure is a significant factor that dominates physical and mechanical behaviors of soils such as fluid flow and geomechanical responses driven by loading. The characterization method using non-destructive testing such as micro X-ray CT technique which has a high resolution with micrometer unit allows to observe internal structure of soils. However, the application has been limited to qualitatively observe 2D and 3D CT images and to obtain the void ratio at macro-scale although the CT images contain enormous information of materials of interests. In this study, we constructed the 3D particle and pore structures based on sequentially taken 2D images of glass beads and quantitatively defined complex pore structure with void cell and void channel. This approach was enabled by implementing image processing techniques that include coordinate transformation, binarization, Delaunay Triangulation, and Euclidean Distance Transform. It was confirmed that the suggested algorithm allows to quantitatively evaluate the distribution of void cells and their connectivity of heterogeneous pore structures for glass beads.

• Tunnel and Underground Space
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• v.12 no.4
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• pp.312-320
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• 2002

It is well-known that when single rock fractures undergo shear displacement, they are influenced by the boundary conditions and fracture roughness. In this case, aperture geometry will change by means of dilation due to the shear displacement. As fractures become the flow paths, fluid flow through rock fractures is affected by the void geometry. In this study, therefore, the influence of roughness on shear behavior of fractures has been investigated, and the resulting hydraulic behavior has been analyzed. In order for this study, a statistical method has been used to generate rough fractures, and they have been adopted into new conceptual models fur fracture shearing and flow calculations. The main contributions of this study are as follows: firstly, fracture shear behavior becomes less brittle with decreasing fracture roughness and increasing normal stress. Then, the characteristics of aperture distribution becomes those of roughness of fractures indicating its hydraulic significance. Finally, it is observed that with decreasing fracture roughness the breakdown of channel flow occurs more slowly.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society for Rock Mechanics Conference
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• 2000.09a
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• pp.117-128
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• 2000

The development of proper joint model, which can describe real phenomena exactly and still can be used easily, is one of the most important element for the analysis of the mechanical and hydraulic behavior of discontinuous rock mass. In this study, an elasto-plastic constitutive model of joint behavior considering asperity degradation was extended with the concept of first and second order asperities. The proposed model was implemented to numerical code with discrete finite joint element. The parametric study with the various asperity angles and degradation coefficients showed that the model can reproduce the shear behavior of typical rough joints well. Results of laboratory monotonic and cyclic shear tests were compared with those of numerical tests to validate the model. The hydraulic model considering the relations between gouge production and aperture was introduced to the mechanical model. In an attempt to examine the performance of the model, comparative numerical test was conducted. Permeability between joint surfaces increased rapidly at the first stage, but became nearly constant with increasing shear displacement due to gouge production and uniform variation of aperture distribution.

• Tunnel and Underground Space
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• v.10 no.3
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• pp.366-377
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• 2000

The development of proper joint model, which can describe real phenomena exactly and still can be used easily, is one of the most important element for the analysis of the mechanical and hydraulic behavior of discontinuous rock mass. In this study, an elasto-plastic constitutive model of joint behavior considering asperity degradation was extended with the concept of first and second order asperities. The proposed model was implemented to numerical code with discrete finite joint element. The parametric study with the various asperity angles and degradation coefficients showed that the model can reproduce the shear behavior of typical rough joints well. Results of laboratory monotonic and cyclic shear tests were compared with those of numerical tests to validate the model. The hydraulic model considering the relations between gouge production and aperture was introduced to the mechanical mode1. In an attempt to examine the performance of the model, comparative numerical test was conducted. Permeability between joint surfaces increased rapidly at the first stage, but became nearly constant with increasing shear displacement due to gouge production and uniform variation of aperture distribution.