• Tunnel and Underground Space
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• v.27 no.1
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• pp.12-25
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• 2017

In local underground mines heavily depending on the natural ventilation, ducted fan auxiliary ventilation system is strongly recommended instead of the total mine ventilation system requiring large capital and operating costs. Optimizing the installation of ducted fans in series in long large-opening mines is required to assure the economy and efficiency of the ventilation system. The two most critical design parameters for optimization are the wall separation distance and gap length between adjoining ducts. This study aims at deriving the optimal values for those two parameters concerning the economic and environmental aspects through the extensive CFD analysis, which minimizes pressure loss, leakage and entrainment of the contaminated air in the gap space. The ranges of the wall separation distance and gap length for study are selected by taking into consideration the existing recommendations and guidelines. The ultimate goal is to optimize the auxiliary ventilation system using ducted fans in series to provide a reliable and efficient solution to maintain clean and safe workplace environment in local long underground mines.

• Tunnel and Underground Space
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• v.22 no.6
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• pp.383-392
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• 2012

This study introduces $M_{(i,j,k)}BCP$ (Mining Business Continuity Planning) which is the smart management system of mine disasters to achieve the safe and eco-friendly mining. Where, 'i' is mine kinds, 'j' is mining processes, and 'k' is risks at process respectively. By specifically setting 'i=1=limestone mine', this study also suggests that $M_{(i,j,k)}BCP$ is the smart management system of limestone mine. Mining risks used in this study were obtained from professional survey and literature review. This study classified these risks by five different mining processes and reduced risk numbers approximately 60 to 26. And they were all allocated into $M_{(i,j,k)}BCP$ and assessed. To do assess risks, this study used four risk indexes which are probability, casualty, facility loss, and discontinuity respectively. By the results of the assessment of risks, results could be four specific groups based on their causes and impacts. In addition, one of the results showed that the most possible risks at limestone mine was the roof-fall and rock-fall in digging process. This result means that $M_{(1,2,1)}BCP$ should be established as a first priority at limestone mine.

• Tunnel and Underground Space
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• v.29 no.6
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• pp.480-507
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• 2019

This paper aims at optimizing the auxiliary ventilation system in large-opening limestone mines with unducted fans. An extensive CFD and also site study were carried out for optimization at the blind entries. The fan location, operating mode, and layout are the parameters for optimization. Since the jet stream discharged from the auxiliary fan is flowing faster than 15 m/s in most of the cases, the stream collides with floor, sides or roof and even with the jet stream generated from the other fan placed upstream. Then, it is likely to lose a large portion of its inertial force and then its ventilation efficiency drops considerably. Therefore, the optimal fan installation interval is defined in this study as an interval that maximizes the uninterrupted flowing distance of the jet stream, while the cross-sectional installation location can be optimized to minimize the energy loss due to possible collision with the entry sides. Consequently, the optimization of the fan location will improve ventilation efficiency and subsequently the energy cost. A number of different three-dimensional computational domains representing a full-scale underground space were developed for the CFD study. The velocity profiles and the CO concentrations were studied to design and optimize the auxiliary ventilation system without duct and at the same time mine site experiments were carried out for comparison purposes. The ultimate goal is to optimize the auxiliary ventilation system without tubing to provide a reliable, low-cost and efficient solution to maintain the clean and safe work environment in local large-opening underground limestone mines.

• Tunnel and Underground Space
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• v.29 no.6
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• pp.439-455
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• 2019

A buffer is the major component of a high level radioactive waste repository. Due to their thermal conductivity and low permeability, bentonites have been considered as a key component of a buffer system in most countries. The deep geological condition generates ground water inflow and results in swelling pressure in the buffer and backfill. Investigation of swelling pressure of bentonite buffer is an important task for the safe disposal system. The swelling pressure that can be critical is affected by mechanical and hydro properties of the system. Therefore, in this study, a sensitivity analysis was conducted to examine the effect of hydro-mechanical (HM) behaviors in the MX-80 bentonite. Based on the results of the swelling pressure generation with HM model parameters, a coupled HM analysis of an unsaturated buffer and backfill in a deep geological repository was also carried out to investigate the major factor of the swelling pressure generation.

• Explosives and Blasting
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• v.22 no.3
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• pp.57-64
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• 2004

There are two major types of underwater blasting at Korea, bridges and harbor construction work. Pier blasting for lay the foundation bridges construction is used dry excavation working (drilling and charging) after pump out water and then fire pump in water that is same as bench blasting. In contrast, underwater blasting for harbor construction and increase of harbor load depth is used to barge with digging equipment that is in oder to drilling on the surface and blasting work(charge, hook-up) under water. Thus, there are need to special concern such as charge method and hook-up method different from tunnel blasting work and bench blasting work. If do not use special concern breaks out dead pressure and mis fire because of there are so many difficult condition such as water pressure, obstruct field of vision. In this study underwater blasting at Busan Harbor Construction have consider with special concern that is plastic pipe charge method used to MegaMITE I and specialized buoy hook- up method make far initial system detonate on the surface used to TLD. The results is designed blast pattern charge per delay effect an inspection of verify between predict velocity and measure velocity. minimized break out mis fire consideration charge method, hook up method. According to result best underwater blasting design is 105mm drilling dia, MeGAMITE II, HiNLL Plus(non electric detonator).

• Tunnel and Underground Space
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• v.28 no.1
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• pp.38-58
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• 2018

The ventilation system plays a crucial role in underground mine safety. The main objective of the ventilation system is to supply sufficient air to dilute the contaminated air at working places and consequently provide tenable environment during the normal operation, while it also should be capable of controlling the fire propagation and facilitate rescue conditions in case of fire in mines. In this study, a smoke control fan was developed for the auxiliary ventilation as well as the fire smoke exhaust. It works as a free-standing auxiliary fan without tubing to dilute or exhaust the contaminated air from the working places. At the same time, it can be employed to extract the fire smoke. This paper aims to examine the smoke control efficiency of the fan when combined with the current ventilation system in mines. A series of the site experiments and numerical simulations were made to evaluate the fan performance in blind entry development sites. The tracer gas method with SF6 was applied to investigate the contaminant behavior at the study sites. The results of the site study at a large-opening limestone mine were compared with the CFD analysis results with respect to the airflow pattern and the gas concentration. This study shows that in blind development entry, the most polluted and risky place, the smoke fan can exhaust toxic gases or fire smoke effectively if it is properly combined with an additional common auxiliary fan. The venturi effect for smoke exhaust from the blind entry was also observed by the numerical analysis. The overall smoke control efficiency was found to be dependent on the fan location and operating method.

• Tunnel and Underground Space
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• v.30 no.3
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• pp.226-241
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• 2020

The stability of underground mine cavity is closely related with pillar strength. The vulnerability of pillars can be judged and reinforced if the pillar strength is known. The pillar strength is affected by characteristics of discontinuities and shape of a pillar. The change of pillar strength due to a discontinuity passing through the center of a pillar, width-to-height ratio of a pillar and small joints existing within a pillar was analyzed using PFC 3D. The result showed that the pillar strength is influenced by dip angle of a discontinuity and it increases as width-to-height ratio of a pillar increases. The pillar strength decreases as the number of contained joints increases. The relationship between total trace length observable from the pillar surface and the pillar strength was regressed with exponential function. The correlation coefficient of the regression was high enough so that pillar strength can be predicted using total trace length if a joint set exists in a pillar. Lastly, the method to estimate the strength of a pillar that includes two joint sets was proposed if the joint dip angles are 60°, 30°. The method also need total trace lengths of two joint sets.

• Tunnel and Underground Space
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• v.30 no.4
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• pp.271-305
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• 2020

An effect of coupled thermo-hydro-mechanical and chemical (THMC) behavior is an essential part of the performance and safety assessment of geological disposal systems for high-level radioactive waste and spent nuclear fuel. Furthermore, numerical models and modeling techniques are necessary to analyze and predict the coupled THMC behavior in the disposal systems. However, phenomena associated with the coupled THMC behavior are nonlinear, and the constitutive relationships between them are not well known. Therefore, it is challenging to develop numerical models and modeling techniques to analyze and predict the coupled THMC behavior in the geological disposal systems. It is also difficult to verify and validate the development of the models and techniques because it requires expensive laboratory tests and in-situ experiments that need to be performed for a long time. DECOVALEX was initiated in 1992 to efficiently develop numerical models and modeling techniques and validate the developed models and techniques against the lab and in-situ experiments. In Korea, Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute has participated in DECOVALEX-2011, DECOVALEX-2015, and DECOVALEX-2019 since 2008. In this study, all tasks in the three DECOVALEX projects were introduced to the researcher in the field of rock mechanics and geotechnical engineering in Korea.

• Journal of Korean Society of Transportation
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• v.21 no.2
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• pp.33-43
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• 2003

In South Korea, about 74% of total area is mountainous terrain It is therefore inevitable to make tunnel or cutting slope for road construction. According to a related survey, approximately 2,400 sites of cutting slopes were found from 24 different routes of roadway which is overall 900 km long, implying 2.7 slopes per 1km of roadway on average. Even though safety matter such as the slope failure prevention would be the most important consideration for the construction of cutting slopeslandscape of sloped face is nowadays becoming another important factor due to the growing demand for the driver-friendly road environment Various construction methods which attain this goal should therefore be considered in the design stage of the roadway. The objective of this study is to identify important factors in landscape of sloped-cut roadway using factor analysis. For this, 10 main treatment methods of sloped-cut fact were analyzed. This study employed the LISREL(structural analysis of common variance) model in order to capture the qualitative characteristics of the slope-cut road and examine the relationship between the suey error and the variable(s). As a result, more reasonable landscape evaluation model for the road design and construction was proposed.

• Journal of Digital Convergence
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• v.15 no.12
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• pp.313-321
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• 2017

Traffic accidents in the country have steadily increased. Although IOT technologies have been applied so as to prevent the primary accident, practical solutions to prevent the secondary accident have not been suggested. A general guideline is simply recommended. In this paper, utilizing existing communication technology, we implement a proposed model and its simulation to prevent the secondary accident. When it is possible for a driver to secure visibility, the secondary accident can be prevented; In areas like tunnel, mountain terrain, and curve road with heavy traffic, where the driver has difficulty in securing the visibility, the secondary accident rates after the primary accident have been increasing. Therefore, we implement an accident prevention system that determines the primary accident utilizing sensor technology and prevents the secondary accident communicating through V2V or V2I. After the simulation, we found that the proposed model and the existing model made no difference with regard to the secondary accident rates when the visibility of the driver is secured; With the application of the proposed model, however, the accident rates decreased for 3-7 percent even though the visibility and communication were not secured.