• Explosives and Blasting
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• v.35 no.3
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• pp.31-54
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• 2017

In the countries operating nuclear reactors, the development of high-level radioactive waste(HLW) disposal technique is considered as an urgent and important issue for sustainable utilization of nuclear energy. In Korea, in which a low and intermediate radioactive waste repository is already operating, the construction of an underground research laboratory for in situ validation studies became a matter of interest with increasing concerns on the management of HLW. In order to construct and to operate an underground HLW repository safely in deep underground, the stability of rock mass should be guaranteed. As an important factor on rock stability, excavation damaged zone (EDZ) has been studied in many underground research laboratories in foreign countries. For accurate evaluation of the characteristics and effects of EDZ under disposal condition, it is required to use reliable investigation method based on the analysis of previous studies in similar conditions. In this study, status of foreign underground research laboratories in other countries, approaches for investigation the characteristics, size, and effect of EDZ, and major findings from the researches were surveyed and reported. This will help the accomplishment of domestic researches for developing HLW management techniques in underground research laboratory.

• Journal of Korean Tunnelling and Underground Space Association
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• v.24 no.6
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• pp.637-658
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• 2022

TBM tunnel is simple with the iterative process of excavating the ground, building a segment ring-build, and backfilling. Drill & Blast, a conventional tunnel construction method, is more complicated than the TBM tunnel and has some restrictions because it repeats the inspection, drilling, charging, blasting, ventilation, muck treatment, and installation of support materials. However, the preparation work for excavation requires time and cost based on a very detailed plan compared to Drill & Blasting, which reinforces the ground and forms a tunnel after the formation of tunnel portal. This is because the TBM equipment for excavating the target ground determines the success or failure of the construction. If the TBM, an expensive order-made equipment, is incorrectly configured at the assembly stage, it becomes difficult to excavate from the initial stage as well as the main excavation stage. When the assembled shield TBM equipment is dismantled again, and a situation of re-assembly occurs, it is difficult throughout the construction period due to economic loss as well as time. Therefore, in this study, the layout and plan of the site and the assembly process for each major part of the TBM equipment were reviewed for the assembly of slurry shield TBM to construct the largest diameter road tunnel in domestic passing through the Han River and minimized interference with other processes and the efficiency of cutter head assembly and transport were analyzed and improved to suit the site conditions.

• Explosives and Blasting
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• v.38 no.4
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• pp.16-25
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• 2020

Multi-setting smart-investigation of the ground and large uncharged hole boring (MSP) method to reduce the blast-induced vibration in a tunnel excavation is carried out over 50m of long-distance boring in a horizontal direction and thus has been accompanied by deviations in boring alignment because of the heavy and one-directional rotation of the rod. Therefore, the deviation has been adjusted through the boring machine's variable setting rely on the previous construction records and expert's experience. However, the geological characteristics, machine conditions, and inexperienced workers have caused significant deviation from the target alignment. The excessive deviation from the boring target may cause a delay in the construction schedule and economic losses. A deep learning-based prediction model has been developed to discover an ideal initial setting of the MSP machine. Dropout, early stopping, pre-training techniques have been employed to prevent overfitting in the training phase and, significantly improved the prediction results. These results showed the high possibility of developing the model to suggest the boring machine's optimum initial setting. We expect that optimized setting guidelines can be further developed through the continuous addition of the data and the additional consideration of the other factors.

• Explosives and Blasting
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• v.39 no.1
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• pp.10-21
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• 2021

Brittle materials such as rocks and concretes exhibit large strain-rate dependency under dynamic loading conditions. This means that the mechanical properties of such materials can significantly be varied according to load velocity. Thus, the strain-rate dependency is recognized as one of the most important considerations in solving problems of blast engineering or rock dynamics. Unfortunately, however, studies for characterizing the dynamic properties of domestic rocks and other brittle materials are still insufficient in the country. In this study, dynamic tensile tests were conducted using the Hopkinson pressure bar apparatus to characterize the dynamic properties of Geochang granite and high-strength concrete specimens. The dynamic Brazilian disc test, which is suggested by ISRM, and the spalling method were applied. In general, the latter is believed to have some advantages in experiments under high-strain rate deformation. It was found from the tests that there were no significant difference between the dynamic tensile strengths obtained from the two different test methods for the two materials given. However, this was not the expected result before the tests. Actually, authors expected that there be some differences between them. Hence, it is thought that further investigations are needed to clarify this results.

• Explosives and Blasting
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• v.39 no.4
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• pp.22-33
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• 2021

Recently, the frequent occurrence of ground subsidence in urban areas has caused increasing anxiety in residents and incurred significant social costs. Among the causes of ground subsidence, the rupture of old water and sewer pipes not only halts the operation of the buried pipes, but also leads to ground and water pollution problems. However, because most pipes are buried after construction and cannot be seen with the naked eye, the importance of maintenance has underestimated compared to other structures. In recent years, integrated physical exploration has been applied to the maintenance of underground pipes and structures. Currently, to investigate the internal conditions and vulnerable portions of the ground, consolidated physical surveys are executed. Consolidated physical surveys are analysis techniques that obtain various material data and add existing data using multiple physical surveys. Generally, in geotechnical engineering, consolidated physical surveys including electrical and surface wave surveys are adopted. However, it is difficult to investigate time-based changes in under ground using these surveys. In contrast, surveys using cosmic-ray muons have been used to scan the inner parts of nuclear reactors with penetration technology. Surveys using muons enable real-time observation without the influence of vibration or electricity. Such surveys have great potential for available technology because of their ability to investigate density distributions without requiring as much labor. In this paper, survey technologies using cosmic ray muons are introduced, and the possibilities of applying such technologies as new physical survey technologies for underground structures are suggested.

• The Journal of Engineering Geology
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• v.33 no.1
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• pp.85-103
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• 2023

The in-situ remediation of a solidified stratum containing a large amount of fine-texture material like clay or organic matter in contaminated soil faces limitations such as increased remediation cost resulting from decreased purification efficiency. Even if the soil conditions are good, remediation generally requires a long time to complete because of non-uniform soil properties and low permeability. This study assessed the remediation effect and evaluated the field applicability of a methodology that combines pneumatic fracturing, vacuum extraction, and plasma blasting (the PPV method) to improve the limitations facing existing underground remediation methods. For comparison, underground remediation was performed over 80 days using the experimental PPV method and chemical oxidation (the control method). The control group showed no decrease in the degree of contamination due to the poor delivery of the soil remediation agent, whereas the PPV method clearly reduced the degree of contamination during the remediation period. Remediation effect, as assessed by the reduction of the highest TPH (Total Petroleum Hydrocarbons) concentration by distance from the injection well, was uncleared in the control group, whereas the PPV method showed a remediation effect of 62.6% within a 1 m radius of the injection well radius, 90.1% within 1.1~2.0 m, and 92.1% within 2.1~3.0 m. When evaluating the remediation efficiency by considering the average rate of TPH concentration reduction by distance from the injection well, the control group was not clear; in contrast, the PPV method showed 53.6% remediation effect within 1 m of the injection well, 82.4% within 1.1~2.0 m, and 68.7% within 2.1~3.0 m. Both ways of considering purification efficiency (based on changes in TPH maximum and average contamination concentration) found the PPV method to increase the remediation effect by 149.0~184.8% compared with the control group; its average increase in remediation effect was ~167%. The time taken to reduce contamination by 80% of the initial concentration was evaluated by deriving a correlation equation through analysis of the TPH concentration: the PPV method could reduce the purification time by 184.4% compared with chemical oxidation. However, the present evaluation of a single site cannot be equally applied to all strata, so additional research is necessary to explore more clearly the proposed method's effect.

• Tunnel and Underground Space
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• v.20 no.1
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• pp.49-57
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• 2010

For the elasto-plastic analysis of a circular tunnel driven in a strain-softening rock mass subjected to a hydrostatic in-situ stress condition, this study suggests a convenient elasto-plastic analysis scheme which takes the strain-softening of GSI index into account and demonstrates its potential as a numerical tool in designing a circular tunnel. The suggested numerical scheme was developed by modifying the previous elasto-plastic procedure proposed by Lee & Pietruszczak(2008). With the assumption that GSI index of rock mass adjacent to the tunnel surface may be degraded due to the damage caused by the blasting and excavation, the concept of the strain-softening of GSI index was invoked. The concept provides a useful tool considering the strain-softening of the strength parameters appearing in the generalized Hoek-Brown criterion because these parameters can be evaluated empirically by use of GSI. In order to check the validity of the proposed scheme, the elasto-plastic analyses for circular tunnels were performed in various analysis conditions and the results were discussed.

• The Journal of Engineering Geology
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• v.17 no.1 s.50
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• pp.89-99
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• 2007

This paper intends to introduce more objective and qualitative rock mass classification method easily applicable to the excavation of gneissic masses showing corestone weathering profiles. It is proven that corestone weathering profile could be divided with reasonable accuracy into digging, ripping and blasting layers using visual and simple mechanical techniques such as Schmidt hammer rebound test on cut slopes, taking into consideration strength and spacial distribution of corestone, workability and work efficiency of excavation. Also, seismic refraction surveys were employed for shallow investigations (down to $20{\sim}30m$ depth) in corestone weathering profile and conducted across the top of vertical exposures where the underlying geology could be directly inspected. Some discrepancies ($3{\sim}4m$ in average and 6 m occasionally) between the actual and assumed materials with respect to seismic velocities were observed. Thus it can be concluded that field geotechnical mapping and field seismic test should be used together in order to get a relatively good accuracy in assessing likely excavation conditions of corestone weather-ing profiles.

• Journal of Korean Tunnelling and Underground Space Association
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• v.10 no.1
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• pp.1-15
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• 2008

Recently, because of the various factors by uncertainty of underground, the risks in tunnelling have been occurred increasingly. Therefore, it is very important to estimate and control the risks considering geotechnical conditions for tunnel stability and environmental problems by tunnel construction. In this study, the risk analysis for tunnel stability was carried out by classifying the risk factors such as ground support capacity, ground settlement, the inflow of groundwater into the tunnel and the damage by the earthquake. Also, the risk assessment for the environmental problems was performed by calculating the vibration and noise by blasting and the drawdown of the groundwater level caused by tunnel construction. Each risk factor was evaluated quantitatively based on the probabilistic and statistic technique, then it was analyzed the distribution characteristic along overall tunnel site. Finally, it was evaluated that how much each risk factor influences on the construction cost with a period for tunnel construction, so it is possible to perform reasonable tunnel design which was capable of minimizing the risks in the tunnel construction.

• KSCE Journal of Civil and Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.26 no.5C
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• pp.359-368
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• 2006

After construction, time-variant seepage and long-term underground motion are representative factors to understand the abnormal behavior of tunnels. In this study, numerical models have been developed to analyze the behavior of tunnels associated with seepage and long-term underground motion. Possible scenarios have been investigated to establish causes-and-results mechanisms. Various parameters such as permeability of tunnel filter, seepage condition, water table, long-term rock mass load, size of damaged zone due to excessive blasting have been investigated. These are divided into two sub-parts depending on the tunnel type and major loading mechanisms depending on the types. For the soft ground tunnels, the behavior associated with seepage conditions has been studied and the effect of permeability change in tunnel-filter and the effect of water-table change which are seldom measurable are investigated in detail. For the rock mass tunnels, tunnel behavior associated with the visco-plastic behavior of rock mass has been studied and the long-term rock mass loads as a result of relaxation and creep have been considered.