• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.37 no.12
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• pp.89-105
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• 2021

In this paper, feasibility study was carried out to evaluate necessity of seismic design of earth retaining structures in a deep excavation. Dynamic behavior of retaining system was analyzed using FLAC, a finite difference analysis program. It was shown that maximum bending moments of retaining walls and axial forces of supports were increased up to 98% and 87% during earthquake, respectively, compared to final excavation step, which indicates that dynamic earth pressure has a large effect on a retaining system. The stability of retaining system designed according to current design specifications was evaluated using structural forces obtained by numerical analysis, and effect of earthquake loading on structural design was analyzed.

• Tunnel and Underground Space
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• v.33 no.4
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• pp.265-280
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• 2023

Water leakage in tunnels is a defect that can affect tunnel stability and the ground movement by changing the stress and pore water pressure of the surrounding ground. Long-term or large-scale water leaks may lead to damage of tunnel structure and the surrounding environment, such as tunnel lining instability and ground surface settlement. The present study numerically investigated the effects of water leakage on the structural stability of a tunnel and the ground behavior. The tunnel was assumed to be under undrained conditions for preventing the inflow of the surrounding water and leaks occurred in the concrete lining after completion of the tunnel construction. A coupled hydro-mechanical analysis using a TOUGH-FLAC simulator developed in Python was conducted for assessing the leakage induced-behavior of the tunnel structure and ground under different conditions of the amount and location of water leak. Additionally, the effect of hydro-mechanical coupling terms on the results of coupled response was investigated and discussed.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.39 no.9
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• pp.35-50
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• 2023

A preliminary study is conducted to develop seismic design guidelines for temporary retaining structures in a deep excavation. The study involved a comprehensive literature review of the seismic design standards applied domestically and internationally, as well as various methods to calculate seismic earth pressure for pseudostatic analysis. The FLAC 2D, a two-dimensional finite difference analysis program, was utilized to perform pseudostatic analysis using the Semirigid pressure method, Wood method, and Mononobe-Okabe method. The resulting analysis data for the wall moment and axial force of the strut were compared with the dynamic analysis outcomes to evaluate the applicability of pseudostatic analysis. The Semirigid pressure method predicted the most reasonable moment for Stiff walls experiencing horizontal displacements up to 0.4%H. Predicting the axial force of the strut exactly was challenging because the pseudostatic analysis cannot consider dynamic soil-structure interaction; however, it is deemed available for conservative preliminary review to ensure safety.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.39 no.12
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• pp.7-22
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• 2023

In this study, the limit range of input acceleration was investigated based on time domain and response spectrum analyses by considering the relative density, groundwater depth, and soil type. Special attention was paid to the input acceleration and shear modulus of soil, which affect pile behavior. The surrounding soil was identified as an elastoplastic material and subjected to FLAC3D analysis using the Mohr-Coulomb and Finn models as well as FB-Multiplier analysis using a nonlinear p-y curve for soil spring. Based on the analyses, the limit range of acceleration on the pile is much higher for SP soil than for SM soil, and the groundwater level tends to reduce the limit range of input acceleration, irrespective of soil conditions. The limit range of acceleration was mainly affected by the shear modulus. The limit range of acceleration with nonlinear soil behavior is proportional to the relative density of the surrounding soil.

• Journal of Nuclear Fuel Cycle and Waste Technology(JNFCWT)
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• v.17 no.2
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• pp.183-202
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• 2019

For design and performance assessment of a high-level radioactive waste (HLW) disposal system, it is necessary to understand the characteristics of coupled thermo-hydro-mechanical (THM) behavior. However, in previous studies for the Korean Reference HLW Disposal System (KRS), thermal analysis was performed to determine the spacing of disposal tunnels and interval of disposition holes without consideration of the coupled THM behavior. Therefore, in this study, TOUGH2-MP/FLAC3D is used to conduct THM modeling for performance assessment of the Korean Reference HLW Disposal System (KRS). The peak temperature remains below the temperature limit of $100^{\circ}C$ for the whole period. A rapid rise of temperature caused by decay heat occurs in the early years, and then temperature begins to decrease as decay heat from the waste decreases. The peak temperature at the bentonite buffer is around $96.2^{\circ}C$ after about 3 years, and peak temperature at the rockmass is $68.2^{\circ}C$ after about 17 years. Saturation of the bentonite block near the canister decreases in the early stage, because water evaporation occurs owing to temperature increase. Then, saturation of the bentonite buffer and backfill increases because of water intake from the rockmass, and bentonite buffer and backfill are fully saturated after about 266 years. The stress is calculated to investigate the effect of thermal stress and swelling pressure on the mechanical behavior of the rockmass. The calculated stress is compared to a spalling criterion and the Mohr-Coulumb criterion for investigation of potential failure. The stress at the rockmass remains below the spalling strength and Mohr-Coulumb criterion for the whole period. The methodology of using the TOUGH2-MP/FLAC3D simulator can be applied to predict the long-term behavior of the KRS under various conditions; these methods will be useful for the design and performance assessment of alternative concepts such as multi-layer and multi-canister concepts for geological spent fuel repositories.

• Journal of Korean Tunnelling and Underground Space Association
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• v.18 no.6
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• pp.569-579
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• 2016

In order to ensure the stability of tunnel portal slope, reinforcement method such as anchors, soil nails and rock bolts have been used in Korea. When selecting slope reinforcement methods in tunnel portal area such as reinforcement arrangement and length, trial and error method can be very time-consuming and it was also not easy to verify the selection of an optimum condition. In this study, using the FISH language embedded in the finite difference code FLAC3D program, the optimization technique was developed with the Differential Evolution Algorithm (DEA). After building a database on the soil nailing method in tunnel portal area, this system can be selected to an optimum arrangement plan based on the factor of safety through the FLAC3D analysis. Through the results of numerical analysis, it was confirmed that the number of analysis was decreased by about 8 times when DEA based optimization technique was used compared to the full combination (FC). In case of the design of slope reinforcement in tunnel portal area, if this built-system is used, it is expected that the selection of an optimum arrangement plan can be relatively easier.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.20 no.7
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• pp.197-206
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• 2004

The ground anchor support system may not be occasionally used because of space limitations in urban excavation sites nearby the existing structures. In this case, soil nailing system with relatively short length of nails could be efficiently adopted as an alternative method. The general soil nailing support system, however, may result in excessive deformations particularly in an excavation zone of the existing weak subsoils. Pretensioning the soil nails then could play important roles to reduce deformations mainly in the upper part of the nailed-soil excavation system as well as to improve local stability. In this study, a newly modified soil nailing technology named as the PSN (Pretension Soil Nailing), is developed to reduce both facing displacements and ground surface settlements in top-down excavation process as well as to increase the global stability. Up to now, the analytical procedure and design technique are proposed to evaluate maximum pretension force and stability of the PSN system. Also, proposed are techniques to determine the required thickness of a shotcrete facing and to estimate probability of a failure against the punching shear, Based on the proposed procedure and technique, effects of the radius of a influence circle and dilatancy angle on the thickness of a shotcrete facing, bonded length and safety factors are analyzed. In addition, effects of the reduction of deformations expected by pretension of the soil nails are examined in detail throughout an illustrative example and the $FLAC^{2D}$ program analysis. And a numerical approach is proposed PSN system using the shear strength reduction technique with the $FLAC^{2D}$ program.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.18 no.6
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• pp.141-152
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• 2002

This paper is the result of the experimental and numerical research on the distribution of vertical earth pressure due to surcharge loads acting on cantilever retaining wall close to a rigid slope with a stiff angle. Centrifuge model experiments were performed with changing the roughness of adjacent slope to the wall, distance between the wall and the slope and gravitational levels. Vertical earth pressures were measured by earth cells embedded in the backfill of the wall. Test results of vertical earth pressures due to surcharge loads were compared with theoretical estimations by using two different methods of limit equilibrium and the numerical analysis. For limit equilibrium methods, the modified silo and the wedge theories, proposed by Chung(1993, 1997), were used to analyze test results. Based on those modified theories, the particular solution with the boundary condition of surcharge loads on the surface of backfill was obtained to find the vertical stress distributions acting on the backfill. FLAC with the hyperbolic constitutive model was also used for the numerical estimation. As a result of comparison of test results with theoretical and numerical estimations, distribution of vertical earth pressures obtained from centrifuge model tests is generally in good agreement with numerical estmated values by using FLAC whereas the wedge theory shows values close to test results in case the distance between the wall and the slope is narrow.

• Tunnel and Underground Space
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• v.25 no.2
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• pp.155-167
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• 2015

The thermal-hydrological-mechanical (T-H-M) behavior of rock mass surrounding a high-temperature cavern thermal energy storage (CTES) operated for a period of 30 years has been investigated by TOUGH2-FLAC3D simulator. As a fundamental study for the development of prediction and control technologies for the environmental change and rock mass behavior associated with CTES, the key concerns were focused on the hydrological-thermal multiphase flow and the consequential mechanical behavior of the surrounding rock mass, where the insulator performance was not taken into account. In the present study, we considered a large-scale cylindrical cavern at shallow depth storing thermal energy of $350^{\circ}C$. The numerical results showed that the dominant heat transfer mechanism was the conduction in rock mass, and the mechanical behavior of rock mass was influenced by thermal factor (heat) more than hydrological factor (pressure). The effective stress redistribution, displacement and surface uplift caused by heating of rock and boiling of ground-water were discussed, and the potential of shear failure was quantitatively examined. Thermal expansion of rock mass led to the ground-surface uplift on the order of a few centimeters and the development of tensile stress above the storage cavern, increasing the potential of shear failure.

• KSCE Journal of Civil and Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.41 no.5
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• pp.533-541
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• 2021

Retaining walls have been used to prevent slope failure through resistance of earth pressure in railway, road, nuclear power plant, dam, and river infrastructure. To calculate dynamic earth pressure and determine the characteristics for seismic behavior, many researchers have analyzed the nonlinear response of ground and structure based on various numerical analyses (FLAC, PLAXIS, ABAQUS etc). In addition, seismic fragility evaluation is performed to ensure safety against earthquakes for structures. In this study, we used the FLAC2D program to understand the seismic response of the inverted T-type wall with a backfill slope, and evaluated seismic fragility based on relative horizontal displacements of the wall. Nonlinear site response analysis was performed for each site (S2 and S4) using the seven ground motions to calculate various seismic loadings reflecting site characteristics. The numerical model was validated based on other numerical models, experiment results, and generalized formula for dynamic active earth pressure. We also determined the damage state and damage index based on the height of retaining wall, and developed the seismic fragility curves. The damage probabilities of the retaining wall for the S4 site were computed to be larger than those for the S2 site.