• Economic and Environmental Geology
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• v.42 no.3
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• pp.261-272
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• 2009

An experimental study of the accelerated weathering was performed to investigate the variations of physicomechanical properties of deteriorated rocks due to freeze-thaw weathering for the Jurassic granite specimens from Wonju, Gangwon-do. Each complete cycle of freeze and thaw was lasted 24 hours, comprising 2 hours saturating in vacuum chamber, 8 hours freezing at -20$\pm1^{\circ}C$ and 14 hours thawing at room temperature. Freeze-thaw cycles were implemented with measuring the index physical properties as well as geometries of microfractures. The seismic velocity was found to decrease with increasing freeze-thaw cycles. On the other hand, absorption tends to increase with freeze-thaw cycles. In the end, it was concluded that variations of the index properties of deteriorated specimen depend on its initial properties and flaws in rock. The size and density of the traces of the microfracture on slab specimen were changed continuously with increasing freeze-thaw weathering. The results obtained in this study show that the box fractal dimension($D_B$) has the strong capability of quantifying the combined effect of size and density of the microfractures.

• The Journal of Engineering Geology
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• v.25 no.4
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• pp.499-510
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• 2015

Artificial accelerated weathering test evaluated rocks from near the circuit road of Ulleungdo island, approximately 120 km from east of the Korean Peninsula. The tests subjected rock specimens to conditions based on the climate of the island. The specimens (such as basaltic breccia, trachyte, volcanic breccia) were preliminarily classified using a TAS diagram (XRF data) and based on the constituent minerals (XRD data); they were further classified by weathering degree according to their absorption ratios. During the artificial accelerated weathering, the absorption ratio of most of the specimens increased, but the point-load strength did not decrease in most cases, except for the volcanic breccia. The greater initial absorption ratio of trachyte rock specimen in comparison with the other specimens led to a greater increase of its absorption ratio during the artificial accelerated weathering test. The volcanic breccia specimens showed the greatest increase of absorption ratio and the biggest reduction ratio of the point- load strength during the tests. These results could aid prediction of the weathering rate of rocks in Ulleungdo island subjected to weathering processes; trachyte which appears to accelerate with time, and volcanic breccia whose mechanical strength can largely decrease in a relative short period of time. Proper measures therefore appear necessary for the prevention of natural disaster such as rock fall and landslide around the circuit road.

• Journal of Conservation Science
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• v.28 no.4
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• pp.305-319
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• 2012

The Myeongdongseongdang Cathedral, which was designated as Historic Site No. 258 in Korea, is a representative cathedral of Korean Catholic church designed by a French priest Eugene-Jean Georges Coste and completed in 1898. It is a Gothic-styled architecture constructed with bricks and stones. Lithological and mineralogical analyses determined that holy stone relics were made of marble and granite, and foundation stones are of pink feldspar granite. Deterioration mapping and ultrasonic measurement revealed main weathering and damage were exfoliation (40%) and black discoloration (37%) in the holy water basin, and exfoliation (6%) and discoloration (46%) in the exterior foundation stones. Ultrasonic velocity of the stones were calculated as 3,525m/s in the holy water basin and 2,795m/s in the exterior stones that indicated these stones were sorted into moderately to highly weathered rock. This was resulted from moisture and atmospheric pollutants around the cathedral.

• The Journal of Engineering Geology
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• v.22 no.3
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• pp.293-307
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• 2012

Shear wave velocity is commonly invoked in explaining geophysical phenomena and in solving geotechnical engineering problems. In particular, the importance of shear wave velocity in geotechnical earthquake engineering has been widely recognized for seismic design and seismic performance evaluation. In the present study, various insitu seismic tests were performed to evaluate geotechnical dynamic characteristics at 183 sites in Korea, and shear wave velocity profiles with depth were determined to be representative of the dynamic properties at the investigated sites. Subsurface soil and rock layers at the target sites were reclassified into five geotechnical layers: fill, alluvial soil, weathered soil, weathered rock, and bedrock, taking into account their general uses in geotechnical earthquake engineering practice. Average shear wave velocity profiles for the five geotechnical layers were obtained by synthesizing the shear wave velocity profiles from seismic tests in the field. Based on the profiles, a representative shear wave velocity value was determined for each layer, for use in engineering seismology and geotechnical earthquake engineering.

• Journal of the Korean Geographical Society
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• v.38 no.6
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• pp.922-934
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• 2003

On top of several peaks of Seoraksan National Park. many extensive blockfields are found. After initial report was made in year 2000, further field work and analysis of satellite image have been made. Blockfields on top of mountain peaks exhibit evidence of chemical weathering including gnammas and grooves. Also, several lichen colonies larger than 80 cm in diameter have been found on the surface of many blocks. High resolution IKONOS image has been used to delineate the boundary of blockfields which are hard to access during the field trip. Blockfields of Mt. Seoraksan lack fine material necessary for age dating and clay mineral analysis because they experienced long period of wash and erosion during the Holocene. The ages of blockfields seem to be pre-Holocene on the basis of size of lichen colony and weathering pits.

• The Journal of Engineering Geology
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• v.14 no.4 s.41
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• pp.401-416
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• 2004

We have collected shale specimens from the Pungam Basin in Kangwon province and investigated change of physical properties by freezing and thawing in water as well as in acidic fluid. The temperature range was $-20{\pm}2^{\circ}C\~15{\pm}2^{\circ}C$. Specimens were frozen for 12 hours and thawed in water for 8 hours. Then, they were saturated in the vacuum chamber for 4 hours to make specimens fully saturated. This procedure was 1 cycle. We have measured absorption, ultrasonic velocity, shore hardness, slake durability and uniaxial compressive strength at every 5th cycles. The physical properties increased or decreased as freezing and thawing cycles increased. Uniaxial compressive strength decreased by 0.40MPa per cycle in water and by 0.48MPa in acidic fluid. Elastic constant also decreased by 0.21GPa per cycle in water and by 0.30GPa in acidic fluid. Absorption increased by $0.29\%$ and $0.37\%$ per cycle in water and acidic fluid, respectively. These results indicate that decrease in uniaxial compressive strength, elastic constant and absorption by freezing and thawing in acidic fluid is more rapid than in water. Ultrasonic velocities, shore hardness and slake durability show no differences in water and acidic fluid. When we compared our results with the temperatures in the Hongchon during the winter season, $6\~12$ cycles may be equivalent to 1 year.

• Tunnel and Underground Space
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• v.16 no.2 s.61
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• pp.109-134
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• 2006

Rocks undergo weathering processes influenced by changing in pressure-temperature condition, atmosphere, underground water, and rainfall. The weathering processes change physical and chemical characteristics of the rocks. Once the rocks are weathered, the characteristics of them are changed and, because of the changing, several disadvantages such as rock slope failures and underground water spouts are can occur. Before we cut a large rock slope, therefore, we must analyze current weathering conditions of rocks and predict weathering processes in the future. Through the results of such analyses, we can judge reinforcement works. In order to comply with such requests, chemical weathering sensitivity analysis which was analyzed from chemical weathering velocities and other characteristics of rocks has been applied in several prior construction works in Korea. But, It is defective to use directly in engineering fields because it was developed for soils(not rocks), it has too mny factors must be considered and the relationships between the factors are not clear, and it is hard to explain the weathering processes in engineering time range. Besides above, because it has been used for isotropic rocks, this method is hard to apply to anisotropic rocks such as sedimentary rocks. Acceding to studies from morphologists (e.g. Oguchi et al., 1994; Sunamura, 1996; Norwick and Dexter, 2002), time dependent strength reduction influenced by weathering shows a negative exponential function form. Appling this relation, one can synthesize the factors which influence the weathering processes to the strength reduction, and get meaningful estimates in engineering viewpoint. We suggest this weathering sensitivity characterization method as a technique that can explain time dependent weathering sensitivity characteristics through strength changes and can directly applied the rock slope design.

• Tunnel and Underground Space
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• v.19 no.2
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• pp.146-157
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• 2009

An experimental study of accelerated weathering on mudstone sample specimens from Haman, Gyeongnam was performed to investigate the variations of physico-mechanical properties of deteriorated rocks due to freeze-thaw weathering. Each complete cycle of freeze and thaw lasted 24 hours, comprising 2 hours of saturating in vacuum chamber, 8 hours of freezing at $-16{\pm}1^{\circ}C$ and 14 hours of thawing at room temperature. Total of 55 cycles of freeze-thaw were completed with measuring the index properties as well as geometries of microfractures. The measured specific gravity and P-wave velocity found to decrease with increasing freeze-thaw cycles. On the other hand, absorption ratio and effective porosity were continuously increased with increasing freeze-thaw cycles. It was found that the index properties of deteriorated sample specimen depend on its initial properties and flaws in rock. The size and density of the traces of the microfracture on slab specimen exhibited abrupt changes after 30 cycles of freeze-thaw weathering. The results obtained in this study show that the box fractal dimension($D_B$) given in this paper has the strong capability of quantifying the size and density of the microfracture.

• Tunnel and Underground Space
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• v.22 no.4
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• pp.276-283
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• 2012

Changes in rock properties due to freezing and thawing cycles ranging from $-20^{\circ}C$ to $10^{\circ}C$ were checked for the typical Korean rocks: granite (weathered), limestone, sandstone, tuff, shale and basalt. The porosity, seismic velocity, shore hardness and specific gravity were measured every 10 cycles for each type of rock up to 40 cycles. The specific gravity was rarely changed. Granite (w), shale and basalt decreased gradually in their shore hardness and seismic velocity values, these values for limestone, sandstone and tuff changed only a very little. The porosity increased in the granite (w), shale and basalt, whereas in the others it did not change. Due to the low tensile strength with high porosity, granite (w), shale and basalt were susceptible to the F-T cycles. A linear regression equation was calculated based on the experiment results according to properties and types of rock. The relationship between the freeze-thaw sensitivity (=initial porosity/initial tensile strength) and the coefficients of the regression equation was examined. With additional experimental data, the coefficients of the regression equation can be estimated using the F-T sensitivity. This makes it possible to predict the properties of rock as affected by freeze-thaw weathering by only measuring the initial properties without knowledge of the regression equation coefficients for each type of rock.

• Geophysics and Geophysical Exploration
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• v.8 no.1
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• pp.18-25
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• 2005

We derive refraction statics for seismic data recorded in a hard rock terrain, in which there are large and rapid variations in the depth of weathering. The statics corrections range from less than 10 ms to more than 70 ms, often over distances as short as 12 receiver intervals. This study is another demonstration of the importance in obtaining accurate initial refraction models of the weathering in hard rock terrains in which automatic residual statics may fail. We show that the statics values computed with a simple model of the weathering using the Generalized Reciprocal Method (GRM) and the Refraction Convolution Section (RCS) are comparable in accuracy to those computed with a more complex model of the weathering, using least-mean-squares inversion with the conjugate gradient algorithm (Taner et al., 1998). The differences in statics values between the GRM model and that of Taner et al. (1998) systematically vary from an average of 2ms to 4ms over a distance of 8.8 km. The differences between these two refraction models and the final statics model, which includes the automatic residual values, are generally less than 5 ms. The residuals for the GRM model are frequently less than those for the model of Taner et al. (1998). The RCS statics are picked approximately 10 ms later, but their relative accuracy is comparable to that of the GRM statics. The residual statics values show a general correlation with the refraction statics values, and they can be reduced in magnitude by using a lower average seismic velocity in the weathering. These results suggest that inaccurate average seismic velocities in the weathered layer may often be a source of short-wavelength statics, rather than any shortcomings with the inversion algorithms in determining averaged delay times from the traveltimes.