• Tunnel and Underground Space
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• v.29 no.1
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• pp.30-37
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• 2019

Some leading countries in mining have a very quantitative guideline for underground mine opening design which is useful to minimize mine hazards such as rockfall and collapse. Those hazards sometimes can cause a huge damage on human life and property in the mines. Construction guidelines of underground mines in Korea consist of qualitative and general expressions although the workers' safety rules and guides are well provided. Recently, mining operations in Korea are going underground due to the environmental regulations and resource depletion at shallow depth, and therefore there is a growing demand on a specialized and systematic guideline for mine opening design securing the underground stability. In this paper, current status of mining industry, research trends, and mining guidelines in Korea and overseas have been reviewed to give an insight into developing a new Korean guideline for underground mine design.

• Tunnel and Underground Space
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• v.27 no.2
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• pp.69-76
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• 2017

Physical models of underground mines are very useful to the design of mine openings and the management of work progress of mining companies as well as to consulting. Even though 3D image realization techniques for mine openings have already been developed by various companies the physical models are still widely used because they can provide better understanding without sophisticated equipments for the most of people. Conventional materials for the physical models are paper and acryl which demand a lot of time and labor to make the model even with low precision and high cost. In this research, 3D printing technique is adopted to develop the physical model with relatively short time, low cost, and proper degree of precision. Finally the computer software "UMine2STL" was developed and verified by comparing the printed product with its design.

• Tunnel and Underground Space
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• v.28 no.4
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• pp.358-371
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• 2018

The stability of openings in the underground mine is major concern in the operation of mines that must ensure productivity and safety. Among many rock conditions affecting cavities stability, the width and height of the opening is an important design factor. In this paper, we consider to determine the maximum unsupported span of a opening in a limestone mine by using the Q system among several rock classification schemes. In order to determine the span of the unsupported opening in the limestone mine, rock mass classifications were carried out at over 200 sites in the underground limestone mines. The relationships by using the Q system and the stability graph proposed by Mathews to determine the maximum span of the unsupported opening were derived and compared. We propose a new classification method that combines GSI and RMR rock classification systems to make it easy to use in a field.

• Journal of Korean Tunnelling and Underground Space Association
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• v.4 no.2
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• pp.123-133
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• 2002

In the construction of the road tunnel in mine area, old mine gangways can cause the instability of the tunnel. In this case study, the field investigation is carried out to figure out the location of old gangways adjacent to the tunnel, and their influence on the tunnel stability is estimated according to the location pattern and rock condition by FLAC analysis. The grouting reinforcement of tunnel crown region and old gangway is suggested and its role on assurance of the tunnel stability is also verified. It can be said from this study that the effect of the old gangway on the stability of tunnel varies with the dimension of gangway, distance from the tunnel, rock condition and groundwater, and therefore these paramerter should be compositively considered in the assessment of the tunnel stability.

• Tunnel and Underground Space
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• v.30 no.1
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• pp.76-86
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• 2020

In this study, a small autonomous driving robot was developed for underground mines using the Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) sensor. The developed robot measures the distances to the left and right wall surfaces using the LiDAR sensor, and automatically controls its steering to drive along the centerline of mine tunnel. A field experiment was conducted in an underground amethyst mine to test the driving performance of developed robot. During five repeated driving tests, the robot showed stable driving performance overall. There were no collision accidents with the wall of mine tunnel.

• Tunnel and Underground Space
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• v.13 no.6
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• pp.421-433
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• 2003

Demand for limestone production from both the underground and opencast mines in Korea is gradually increasing. Increase in productivity with safe mining operations is the emphasis laid on the mining industry. KIGAM has undertaken a detailed investigation to apply RMR and Q classification system for the design of underground limestone mining operations. The field investigations were confined to the underground mines of Daesung Mining Development Co. Ltd. and Pyunghae Mines of Korean Airport Service. Modification to the standard RMR and Q for limestone mines in Korea along with the correlation between these two systems are discussed while attempts were also made to calculate the width of a safe unsupported span.

• Tunnel and Underground Space
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• v.21 no.5
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• pp.370-376
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• 2011

To design the drainage system of a mine, it is very important to evaluate the groundwater inflow to the mine workings. In this study, continuous steady state flow through rock mass around mine openings developed in Sungok area of Gagok Mine was analyzed. Saturated only model and Saturated/unsaturated model were used as material models of rock mass. Groundwater quantities flowing into Sungok 160 level which is 1216 m long are computed as 1450 $m^3$/day in case of a saturated model and as 1071 $m^3$/day in case of a saturated/unsaturated model. An effect that hydraulic conductivity has on inflow turned out be greater than precipitation and inflow increased linearly with increase of hydraulic conductivity. It was found that change of hydraulic conductivity ratio and orientation have an impact on the variation of inflow and water table.

• Tunnel and Underground Space
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• v.24 no.3
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• pp.212-223
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• 2014

In this study, the stability analyses for metal mine roadways at a great depth were performed. In-situ stress measurements using hydrofracturing, numerous laboratory tests for rock cores and GSI & RMR classifications were conducted in order to find the physical properties of both intact rock and in-situ rock mass distributed in the studied metal mine. Through the scenario analysis and probabilistic assessment on the results of rock mass classification, the in-situ ground conditions of mine roadways were divided into the best, the average and the worst cases, respectively. The roadway stabilities corresponding to the respective conditions were assessed by way of the elasto-plastic analysis. In addition, the appropriate roadway shapes and the support patterns were examined through the numerical analyses considering the blast damaged zone around roadway. It was finally shown to be necessary to reduce the radius of roadway roof curvature and/or to install the crown reinforcement in order to enhance the stability of studied mine roadways.

• Tunnel and Underground Space
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• v.15 no.6 s.59
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• pp.425-431
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• 2005

A series of geotechnical surveys and in-situ tests were carried out to evaluate the stability of underground mine cave in an abandoned coal mine. After the closure of the mine, the underground mine drifts have been utilized for a tourist route since 1999. The dimension of the main cave is 5m width, 3m height and 230m length. The surrounding rock mass of the cave is consist of black shale, coal and limestone. Also, the main cave is intersected by two fault zone. Detailed field investigations including Rock Mass Rating(RMR), Geological Strength Index(GSI) and Q classification were performed to evaluate the stability of the main cave and to examine the necessity of reinforcement. Based on the results of rock mass classification and numerical analysis, suitable support design was recommended for the main cave. RMR and Q values of the rock masses were classified in the range of fair to good. According to the support categories proposed by Grimstad & Barton(1993), these classes fall in the reinforcement category of the Type 3 to Type 1. A Type 3 reinforcement category signifies systematic bolting and no support is necessary for the Type 1 case. From the result of numerical analysis, it was inferred that additional support on the several unstable blocks is required to ensure stability of the cave.

• Tunnel and Underground Space
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• v.28 no.2
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• pp.125-141
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• 2018

For a long-term mine development plan, the determination and design of mine tunnel size are very important because it is the basis of plans for equipment, transportation and operation. The ${\bigcirc}{\bigcirc}$ mine has had a difficulty in changing the mining plan due to the design of the tunnels with an emphasis on productivity improvement, and much effort was needed to maintain the mine tunnel. In this study, we designed the mine tunnel with optimized tunnel span considering the mechanical properties of rockmass and established the support plan. To do this, the estimation of the mechanical parameters(Swelling pressure, deformation coefficient and earth coefficient), field investigations and various analyses were carried out. As a result, it was necessary to consider the downsizing of the tunnel section in order to maintain the tunnel stability and dimension by using the roof bolt and analyzed that various functional constructions of the support material and method would be required to maintain the current tunnel size.