• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.31 no.1
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• pp.47-52
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• 2015

In the slope stability analysis and design, Limit Equilibrium Method (LEM) and Shear Strength Reduction technique (SSR) are mainly used. Both methods are able to perform two and three dimensional analysis. SSR is considered to be more sensitive and more reasonable than LEM by many researchers. However, in practice LEM is still widely used because of the increase of analysis time and complexity of the model in SSR. In this study, three dimensional analysis of the protruding rock slope is performed by SSR in order to study the effects of protruding length using rock slope FLAC 3D. In this study, as results of analysis variations of the safety factor have been studied according to slope angle, slope height, the soil strength, protruding slope length projected variables. The results show that the factor of safety as more affected by the shapes of the protruding rock slope than the rock strength.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.3 no.4
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• pp.291-321
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• 2011

The paper describes a simple numerical FLAC model that was developed to simulate the dynamic response of two instrumented reduced-scale model reinforced soil walls constructed on a 1-g shaking table. The models were 1 m high by 1.4 m wide by 2.4 m long and were constructed with a uniform size sand backfill, a polymeric geogrid reinforcement material with appropriately scaled stiffness, and a structural full-height rigid panel facing. The wall toe was constructed to simulate a perfectly hinged toe (i.e. toe allowed to rotate only) in one model and an idealized sliding toe (i.e. toe allowed to rotate and slide horizontally) in the other. Physical and numerical models were subjected to the same stepped amplitude sinusoidal base acceleration record. The material properties of the component materials (e.g. backfill and reinforcement) were determined from independent laboratory testing (reinforcement) and by back-fitting results of a numerical FLAC model for direct shear box testing to the corresponding physical test results. A simple elastic-plastic model with Mohr-Coulomb failure criterion for the sand was judged to give satisfactory agreement with measured wall results. The numerical results are also compared to closed-form solutions for reinforcement loads. In most cases predicted and closed-form solutions fall within the accuracy of measured loads based on ${\pm}1$ standard deviation applied to physical measurements. The paper summarizes important lessons learned and implications to the seismic design and performance of geosynthetic reinforced soil walls.

• Journal of Korean Tunnelling and Underground Space Association
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• v.18 no.2
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• pp.183-193
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• 2016

Estimation of the stability of an operating tunnel through a back analysis is a difficult concept to analyze. Specially, when a relatively thick lining is constructed as in case of a subsea tunnel, there will be a limit to the use of displacement-based tunnel back analysis because the corresponding displacement is too small. In this study, DEA is adopted for tunnel back analysis and the feasibility of DEA for back analysis is evaluated. It is implemented in the finite difference code FLAC3D using its built-in FISH language. In addition, the stability of a tunnel lining will be evaluated from the development of displacement-based algorithm and its expanded algorithm with conformity of several parameters such as stress measurements.

• Journal of Korean Tunnelling and Underground Space Association
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• v.16 no.1
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• pp.91-104
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• 2014

An Excavation Damaged Zone (EDZ), in which rock properties are permanently changed due to blasting impact or stress redistribution, can influence the behavior and stability of structures. In this study, the mechanical stability of an underground opening was simulated by using FLAC, which is a two-dimensional modeling code, with a consideration of EDZ. A sensitivity analysis was also carried out with fractional factorial design. From the modeling, it was found that the behavior and the stability of an underground tunnel are strongly dependent on the existence of the EDZ. The sensitivity analysis showed that the key parameters affecting the factor of safety around the tunnel are in-situ stress ratio, depth, cohesion, reduction ratio, internal friction angle, and height and width of the tunnel. It is necessary to consider the EDZ, which can significantly affect mechanical stability in tunnel design.

• Tunnel and Underground Space
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• v.24 no.2
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• pp.143-154
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• 2014

In this study, we simulated both dissociation of gas hydrate and mechanical deformation of hydrate-bearing sedimentary formation using geomechanical model. The geomechanical model analysis consists of two distinct codes of TOUGH+Hydrate and FLAC3D. The model is characterized by the fact that changes of temperature, pressure, saturation and their influence on the consequent evolution of effective stress, stiffness and strength of hydrate-bearing sediments during gas production could be well simulated. We compared the results of simulation for two different production methods, and showed that combination of depressurization and thermal stimulation results in the enhancement of production rate especially at early stage. We also presented that the hydrate dissociation-induced geomechanical deformation in unconsolidated clay is much larger than that in sandstone.

• Tunnel and Underground Space
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• v.10 no.3
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• pp.344-354
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• 2000

The concrete plug in an underground cavern prevents the stored product (oil, gas, etc) from leaking and the excessive inflow of underground water, so it plays an important role in construction and operation of the storage cavern. Additionally, it should maintain its stability under every possible loading condition. Once the plug is constructed, the cavern is isolated from the external access. Therefore, mechanical and hydraulic consideration should be made in construction to fulfill its function. Therefore, in this study, numerical analyses were conducted to study the optimal shape and thickness of the plug with respect to the various conditions of installation depth, the shape of the plug, in-situ stress ratio (K), the condition of rock-plug interface, and the effect of Excavation Damaged Zone (EDZ). This paper also presents the effect of slot depth on the hydraulic behavior of the plug. These analyses were carried out by using the 2-dimensional finite difference code, rm FLAC, and the 3D code, rm FLAC$\^$3D/.

• Tunnel and Underground Space
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• v.26 no.1
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• pp.12-23
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• 2016

For a successful accomplishment of Carbon Capture Sequestration (CCS) projects, appropriate injection conditions should be designed and optimized for site specific geological conditions. In this study, we evaluated the effect of injection conditions such as injection temperature and injection rate on the geomechanical stability of CCS system in terms of TOUGH-FLAC simulator, which is one of the well-known T-H-M coupled analysis methods. The stability of the storage system was assessed by a shear slip potential of the pre-existing fractures both in a reservoir and caprock, expressed by mobilized friction angle and Mohr stress circle. We demonstrated that no tensile fracturing was induced even in the cold CO2 injection, where the injected CO2 temperature is much lower than that of the reservoir and tensile thermal stress is generated, but shear slip of the fractures in the reservoir may occur. We also conducted a scenario analysis by varying injected CO2 volume per unit time, and found out that it was when the injection rate was decreasing in a step-wise that showed the least potential of a shear slip.

• Explosives and Blasting
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• v.27 no.1
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• pp.21-31
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• 2009

An excavation damaged zone (EDZ) is created by fracturing, excavation or stress redistribution of tunnels. In this zone the mechanical and hydraulic properties of rock are changed, which makes additional cracks and serves as a dominant pathway of groundwater flow. In this study, an assessment on an EDZ size was practiced by the measurement of the deformation modulus at the KAERI underground research tunnel (KURT), and the information was applied to the modelling analysis using FLAC2D software. The EDZ at KURT fell into the range of 0.6~1.8m and the deformation moduli of the EDZ generally correspond to about 40% of intact rock mass. With a consideration of the EDZ in numerical analysis, tunnel displacements increased by about 65% and the maximum principal stress decreased to 58% from the case without EDZ. The plastic zone of the tunnel was enlarged to the crown and invert zones of the tunnel within the range of the length of rock bolts. About 2% of the total tunnel displacement with EDZ was suppressed by the KURT support system. It is anticipated that the investigation of an EDZ can be used as an important and fundamental research for validating the overall performance of a high level waste disposal system.

• Explosives and Blasting
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• v.33 no.2
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• pp.15-24
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• 2015

In general, blast vibrations could make underground cavern unstable by causing relative movements between the surrounding rock blocks that are divided by discontinuities such as joints and faults around the cavern. In the study, a blast guideline was established to obtain the stability of a large-scale cavern for underground crusher room in an open pit limestone mine in Korea. The guideline was suggested in the form of a standard calculation method of the maximum charge per delay for a safe blast. The allowable level of peak particle velocity for the cavern was determined based on the result of a numerical analysis using FLAC2D. The ground vibration data required for the study was obtained from field measurements.

• Tunnel and Underground Space
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• v.15 no.3 s.56
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• pp.169-176
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• 2005

The decreasing pattern of underground temperature measured at 'Gonjiam cold storage cavern' during 7 years which was the first commercial scale underground food storage cavern in Korea was analyzed. The variation of energy consumption was discussed by comparing the consumed energy at the initial operation stage with that at later stage, when the temperature distribution reached a stabilized condition. The point to be considered at the design stage was also discussed by comparing the required refrigerator capacity at the initial operation stage with that at later stage. The extra energy to freeze the groundwater contained in pore space was discussed by analyzing the changing pattern of the rock temperature. The variation of measured rock temperature was compared with the estimated temperature using a numerical code, FLAC. The accuracy of the numerical estimation was discussed by comparing the heat flux measured by the operation time of the refrigerator with that estimated numerically.