• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.53 no.3
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• pp.481-495
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• 2015

Many hydropower stations in southwest China are located in regions of brittle rock mass with high geo-stresses. Under these conditions deep fractured zones often occur in the sidewalls of the underground caverns of a power station. The theory and methods of fracture and damage mechanics are therefore adopted to study the phenomena. First a flexibility matrix is developed to describe initial geometric imperfections of a jointed rock mass. This model takes into account the area and orientation of the fractured surfaces of multiple joint sets, as well as spacing and density of joints. Using the assumption of the equivalent strain principle, a damage constitutive model is established based on the brittle fracture criterion. In addition the theory of fracture mechanics is applied to analyze the occurrence of secondary cracks during a cavern excavation. The failure criterion, for rock bridge coalescence and the damage evolution equation, has been derived and a new sub-program integrated into the FLAC-3D software. The model has then been applied to the stability analysis of an underground cavern group of a hydropower station in Sichuan province, China. The results of this method are compared with those obtained by using a conventional elasto-plastic model and splitting depth calculated by the splitting failure criterion proposed in a previous study. The results are also compared with the depth of the relaxation and fracture zone in the surrounding rock measured by field monitoring. The distribution of the splitting zone obtained both by the proposed model and by the field monitoring measurements are consistent to the validity of the theory developed herein.

• Tunnel and Underground Space
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• v.16 no.4 s.63
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• pp.281-287
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• 2006

Intake of groundwater by tunneling in a mountainous area mostly results from groundwater flow through fractured parts of total rock mass. For reasonable analysis of this phenomenon the representative joint groups 1, 2, and 3 have been selected by previous investigations, geological/geophysical field tests and boring works. Three dimensional fractures were generated by the FracMan and MAFIC which is a three dimensional finite element model has been used to analyse a groundwater flow through fractured media. Monte Carlo simulation was applied to reduce the uncertainty of this study. The numerical results showed that the average and deviation of amounts of groundwater intaked into tunnel per unit length were $5.40{\times}10^{-1}$ and $3.04{\times}10^{-1}m^3/min/km$. It is concluded that tunnel would be stable on impact of groundwater environment by tunneling because of the lower value than $2.00{\sim}3.00m^3/min/km$ as previous and present standard on the application of tunnel construction.

• The Journal of Engineering Geology
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• v.12 no.2
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• pp.189-202
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• 2002

In this study we carried out the in situ test in order to explore the grouting effects of fracture zone on mechanical properties and permeability in tunnel. After consolidation grouting the rock mass averaged 2.30 in the modulus of deformation and 2.49 in the modulus of elasticity. The results obtained through this study are as follows. (1) With advance of the injection steps, the total cement take shows uniformity of the rock mass. (2) After consolidation grouting the improvement of permeability can be identified by reduction of Lugeon values. (3) Grouting injection can improve deformability and strength of rock mass. (4) More mechanical improvement appears for more deformable rock mass before grouting injection.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.22 no.2
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• pp.399-409
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• 2016

The fracture propagation mechanism and fractured rock mass failure mechanism were important research in geotechnical engineering field. Many failures and instability in geotechnical engineering were related on fractures propagation, coalescence and interaction in rock mass under the external force. Most of the current research were limited to two-dimensional for the brittleness and transparency of three-dimensional fracture materials couldn't meet the requirements of the experiment. New materials with good transparent and brittleness were developed by authors. The making method of multi fracture specimens were established and made molds that could be reused. The tension-compression ratio of the material reached above 1/6 in normal temperature. Uniaxial and biaxial loading tests of single and double fracture specimens were carried out. Four new fractures were not found in the experiment of two-dimensional fractures such as the fin shaped crack, wrapping wing crack and petal crack and anti-wing crack. The relationship between stress and strain of the specimens were studied. The specimens with the load had experienced four stages of deformation and the process of the fracture propagation was clearly seen in each stage. The expansion characteristics of the fractured specimens were more obvious than the previous research.

• The Journal of Engineering Geology
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• v.7 no.3
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• pp.229-245
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• 1997

There are Common aspects between the underground oil storage cavern and the radioactive waste disposal facility. Both facilities use appropriately the intrinsic natural berrier characteristics of the rock mass and additionally the engineered barrier system for the long term safety. The geological structures and their hydrogeological characteristics in a faactured rock mass act a major role in the safety and performance of the underground oil storage facility through the design, construction and the operation stages. Because the fracture system distributed in a fractured rock block is complicated owing to their own geometrical and hydrogeological attributes, the hydrogeological perforrmrnce of the facility would depend mainly upon the understandings of their characteristics. This study reviews the uncertainties and key issues which have to be considered to analyse the groundwater flow system in a fractured rock mass and proposes the techniques applicable to characterize the hydrogeological parameter.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.9 no.5
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• pp.619-629
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• 2015

Influenced by various mining activities, fractures in rock masses have different densities, set numbers and lengths, which induce different mechanical properties and failure modes of rock masses. Therefore, precisely expressing the failure criterion of the fractured rock influenced by coal mining is significant for the support design, safety assessment and disaster prevention of underground mining engineering subjected to multiple mining activities. By adopting PFC2D particle flow simulation software, this study investigated the propagation and fractal evolution laws of the micro cracks occurring in two typical kinds of rocks under uniaxial compressive condition. Furthermore, it calculated compressive strengths of the rocks with different confining pressures and box-counting dimensions. Moreover, the quantitative relation between the box-counting dimension of the rocks and the empirical parameters m and s in Hoek-Brown strength criterion was established. Results showed that with the increase of the strain, the box-counting dimension of the rocks first increased slowly at the beginning and then exhibited an exponential increase approximately. In the case of small strains of same value, the box-counting dimensions of hard rocks were smaller than those of weak rocks, while the former increased rapidly and were larger than the latter under large strain. The results also presented that there was a negative correlation between the parameters m and s in Hoek-Brown strength criterion and the box-counting dimension of the rocks suffering from variable mining activities. In other words, as the box-counting dimensions increased, the parameters m and s decreased linearly, and their relationship could be described using first order polynomial function.

• Tunnel and Underground Space
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• v.3 no.2
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• pp.167-174
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• 1993

Index tests are useful because they are rapid and cheap-and if bias is known the fundamental property can be estimated, as when estimating the compressive strength or the tensile sterngth from the rock test hammer value. Index tests which have proved to be very useful are the rock test hammer, the point load test and sonic velocity test. These can provide index values in their owing right or be used to estimate the compressive strength, the tensile strength and elastic modulus. Because of the heterogeneous and fractured nature of rock, many index tests have been developed for a variety of purposes, e.g.for use in rock mass classification schemes.

• Tunnel and Underground Space
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• v.31 no.1
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• pp.66-81
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• 2021

The effects of directional fracture tensor components and first invariant of fracture tensor on deformation moduli and shear moduli of fractured rock masses is analyzed based on regression analysis performed between 3-D fracture tensor parameters and deformability of DFN blocks. Using one or two deterministic joint sets, a total of 224 3-D discrete fracture network (DFN) cube blocks were generated with various configurations of deterministic density and probabilistic size distribution. The fracture tensor parameters were calculated for each generated DFN systems. Also, deformability moduli with respect to three perpendicular direction of the DFN cube blocks were estimated based on distinct element method. The larger the first invariant of fracture tensor, the smaller the values for the deformability moduli of the DFN blocks. These deformability properties present an asymptotic pattern above the certain threshold. It is found that power-law function describes the relationship between the directional deformability moduli and the corresponding fracture tensor components estimated in same direction.

• The Journal of Engineering Geology
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• v.5 no.2
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• pp.139-153
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• 1995

Engineering characteristics of granitic rock masses in Geoje island were estimated by investigating the mechanical and hydraulic properties of core samples drilled in - situ. Since the effect of in -situ stresses could not be considered, some of the engineering properties estimated through rock mass classification were quite different from the in - situ tested results. Based on the results of rock mass classification, borehole tests, and laboratory test the empirical parameters for the design of underground structure were assessed. Though some number of fractured zones were found, granitic rock mass in the southern part of Geoje island showed fairly good quality and the excavating conditions were expected to be suitable for the construction of large scale underground facilities.

• Proceedings of the Korean Geotechical Society Conference
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• 2005.03a
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• pp.57-64
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• 2005

Since the allowable bearing capacities of piles in weathered/fractured rock are mainly governed by settlement, the load-displacement behavior of the rock socketed pile should be well known. To predict pile head settlement at the design stage, the exact understanding of the load-transfer mechanisms is essential. Therefore, in this research, the load-transfer mechanisms of drilled shaft socketed into weathered rock was investigated. For that, 5 cast-in-place concrete piles with diameters of 1,000 mm were socketed into weathered gneiss. The static axial load tests and the load-transfer measurements were performed to examine the axial resistant behavior of the piles. A comprehensive field/laboratory testing program on weathered rock at the field test sites was also performed to describe the in situ rock mass conditions quantitatively. And then, the effect of rock mass condition on the load transfer mechanism was investigated. The side shear resistance of the pile in moderately weathered rock reached to yielding point at a few millimeter displacements, and after that, the rate of resistance increment dramatically decreased. However, that in the highly /completely weathered rock did not show the obvious yielding point, and gradually increased showing the hyperbolic pattern until with the relatively high displacement (>10 mm). The end bearing-displacement curves showed linear increase at least until with the base displacement of approximately 10 mm, regardless rock mass conditions.