• Tunnel and Underground Space
• /
• v.15 no.2 s.55
• /
• pp.157-167
• /
• 2005

Current initial rock stress state is one of the key factors required to evaluate the stability and failure around an excavated opening and its importance increases as the construction depth become deeper and the scale of the rock structure become larger. In this paper, the study was performed to evaluate the characteristics of the regional stress state at Chuncheon-Yanggu mountainous region, the East-North part of Kyeonggi Massif. Forty nine field stress measurements in 9 boreholes were conducted at the depth from 20 m to 290 m by hydraulic fracturing method. The fracturing tracing works were carried out by acoustic televiewer scanning. The study results revealed that the different intial rock stress states presented at different formation rock type and the excessive horizontal stress state with stress ratio(K) close to 3.0 was measured at the depth of 200 m and deeper in the intrusive unite body of the study area. The results from the investigation of excessive horizontal stress and its effect on failure mode showed that there exist several points where the localized excessive horizontal stresses are big enough to potentially induce brittle failures around the future openings greater than 100 m in depth within the granite body of the study area.

• Tunnel and Underground Space
• /
• v.21 no.1
• /
• pp.66-81
• /
• 2011

In this study, it was aimed to develop a thermal-hydraulic-mechanical coupled fracture mechanics code that models a fracture initiation, propagation and failure of underground rock mass due to thermal and hydraulic loadings. The development was based on a 2D FRACOD (Shen & Stephasson, 1993), and newly developed T-M and H-M coupled analysis modules were implemented into it. T-M coupling in FRACOD employed a fictitious heat source and time-marching method, and explicit iteration method was used in H-M coupling. The validity of developed coupled modules was verified by the comparison with the analytical result, and its applicability to the fracture initiation and propagation behavior due to temperature changes and hydraulic fracturing was confirmed by test simulations.

• Journal of The Korean Society of Agricultural Engineers
• /
• v.56 no.6
• /
• pp.113-119
• /
• 2014

This study aims to evaluate the behavior of poorly-compacted raised reservoir levee with water level raising by using centrifugal model test. From the test results, it seems that the hydraulic fracturing at the core of the raised reservoir levee with low degree of compaction possibly occurs due to the drastical increase of pore water pressure by water level raising. Additionally, the continuous infiltration may induce crack and/or sinkhole on the surface of the poorly-compacted raised reservoir levee owing to the increase of the subsidences at the crown and the front side of that. Therefore, reasonable construction management for the compaction of the raised reservoir levee is needed.

• Geophysics and Geophysical Exploration
• /
• v.18 no.2
• /
• pp.64-73
• /
• 2015

Recently, hydraulic fracturing is used in various fields and microseismic monitoring is one of the best methods for judging where hydraulic fractures exist and how they are developing. When locating microseismic events using single vertical well data, distances from the vertical array and depths from the surface are generally decided using time differences between compressional (P) wave and shear (S) wave arrivals and azimuths are calculated using P wave hodogram analysis. However, in field data, it is sometimes hard to acquire P wave data which has smaller amplitude than S wave because microseismic data often have very low signal to noise (S/N) ratio. To overcome this problem, in this study, we developed a grid search algorithm which can find event location using all combinations of arrival times recorded at receivers. In addition, we introduced and analyzed the method which calculates azimuths using S wave. The tests of synthetic data show the inversion method using all combinations of arrival times and receivers can locate events without considering the origin time even using only single phase. In addition, the method can locate events with higher accuracy and has lower sensitivity on first arrival picking errors than conventional method. The method which calculates azimuths using S wave can provide reliable results when the dip between event and receiver is relatively small. However, this method shows the limitation when dip is greater than about $20^{\circ}$ in our model test.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society for Rock Mechanics Conference
• /
• 2008.03a
• /
• pp.79-88
• /
• 2008

Since the hydraulic fracturing field testing method was introduced first to Korean geotechnical engineers in 1994, there have been lots of progresses in a hardware system as well as an interpretation tool. The hydrofracturing system of first generation was the pipe-line type, so it was not easy to handle. It had been modified to a wire-line system at their second generation. It was more compact one but it also needed an additional air-compressor. Our current system is much more compact and operated by all-in-one system, so it doesn't need an additional air-compressor. With a progress in a hardware system, the software for analyzing the in-situ stress regime has also been progressed. For example, the shut-in pressure, which is the most ambiguous parameter to be obtained from hydrofracturing pressure curves, can now be acquired automatically from the various methods. While the hardware and software for hydrofracturing tests are being developed during the last decade, the author could accumulate the field test results which can cover the almost whole area of South Korea. Currently these field data are used widely in a feasibility study or a preliminary design step for tunnel construction in Korea. Regarding the difficulties in a site selection and a test performance for the in-situ stress measurement at an off-shore area, the in-situ stress regime obtained from the field experiences in the land area can be used indirectly for the design of a sub-sea tunnel. From the hydrofracturing stress measurements, the trend of magnitude and direction of in-situ stress field was shown identically with the geological information in Korea.

• Tunnel and Underground Space
• /
• v.18 no.2
• /
• pp.149-161
• /
• 2008

It is nearly impossible to estimate the exact state of the current rock stress of interest site by the theoretical and physical approaches except some specific geological situations. This means that in-situ stress measurement is a unique way to obtain reliable information on rock stress especially for civil and mining engineering related problems. Since late in the 90's, in-situ rock stress tests have been widely conducted to provide the quantitative information on the stress state of engineering site at the design stage of an underground rock structure in the Kyungsang Basin, Korea. The study area is the near surface regions at the depth less than 300 m in the Kyungsang Basin. It includes Yeosoo to the west and Busan to the east. Totally, 270 in-situ stress measurements were conducted in the surface test boreholes at the depth from 14 m to 300 m by hydraulic fracturing method. In this paper, based on the measurement data set, the overall characteristics of the current in-situ rock stress fields in the study area are briefly described. And also the investigation results on the difference between the stress distributions for the granitoid and the andesitic rock region are also introduced. Finally, the distributions of the regional horizontal stress directions in Busan and the Yangsan faults area are shown.

• Proceedings of the Korean Geotechical Society Conference
• /
• 1999.02a
• /
• pp.1-13
• /
• 1999

The use of Compaction Grouting evolved in the 1950's to correct structural settlement of buildings. Over the almost 50 years, the technology has developed and is currently used in wide range of applications. Compaction Grouting, the injection of a very stiff, 'zero-slump' mortar grout under relatively high pressure, displaces and compacts soils. It can effectively repair natural or man-made soil strength deficiencies in variety of soil formations. Major uses of Compaction Grouting include densifying loose soils or fill voids caused by sinkholes, poorly compacted fills, broken utilities, improper dewatering, or soft ground tunneling excavation. Other application include preventing liquefaction, re-leveling settled structures, and using compaction grout bulbs as structural elements of minipiles or underpinning. The technique replaced slurry injection, or 'pressure grouting', as the preferred method of densification grouting. There are several reasons for the increased use of Compaction Grouting which can be summarized in one word: CONTROL. The low slump grout and injection processes are usually designed to keep the grout in a homogeneous mass at the point of injection, while acceptable in some limited applications, tends to quickly get out of control. Hydraulic soil fracturing can cause extensive grout travel, often well beyond the desired treatment zone. So, on the basis of the two case history constructed in recent year, a study has been peformed to analyze the basic mechanism of the Compaction Grouting and verify the effectiveness of the ground improvement using some test methods.

• Tunnel and Underground Space
• /
• v.9 no.4
• /
• pp.315-327
• /
• 1999

Rock fracture mechanics has been widely applied to blasting, hydraulic fracturing, rock slope and many other practical problems in rock engineering. But a measuring method for the fracture toughness of rock, one of the mort important parameters in fracture mechanics as an intrinsic property of rock, has not been yet well established. To obtain mode I rock fracture toughness, the more favorable disc-typed specimens such as CCNBD, SCB, chevron-notched SCB and BDT were used in this study. Rock fracture toughness under mixed-mode and mode II conditions was measured by using the STCA applied to the CCNBD specimen. Size effects such as specimen thickness, diameter and notch length on fracture toughness were investigated. From the mixed-mode results, fracture envelops were obtained by applying various regression curves. The mixed-mode results were also compared with three mixed-mode failure criteria. In each fracture toughness test, acoustic emission was measured to get the data for determining the load levels of different crack propagation patterns.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
• /
• v.27 no.3
• /
• pp.55-61
• /
• 2011

Generally, the Box-Culvert in levee is destroyed by various reasons. Especially when Box-Culvert is installed over the pile foundation in soft ground, the failure occurrs for 1) the weakness of compaction in Box-Culvert side by the differential settlement between outer ground and inner soil prism, 2) hydraulic fracturing and disturbance of Box-Culvert side soil by the repeated acting of seepage pressure at flood time. Also the side of Box-Culvert is difficult to compact and the shear resistance is reduced by more than 1/3 for the reduction of friction caused by the difference of material property. In this study, a series of model tests are conducted for the analysis of the development mechanism of outer ground and inner soil prism by the differential settlement using the pile foundation in soft ground, and cavity suppressed technique is suggested by the analysis of base plate enlargement effect.

• Journal of Korean Tunnelling and Underground Space Association
• /
• v.3 no.1
• /
• pp.51-62
• /
• 2001

In-situ stress measurement using AE (Acoustic Emission) and DRA (Deformation Rate Analysis) is usually carried out under uniaxial loading in the laboratory and it consumes delay time from drilling to testing. Therefore, it should be considered how the lateral stress and delay time influence on the test results for the in-situ stress determination. As the delay time increased, the accuracy of estimating the pre-stress decreased. The pre-stress of the specimen loaded only axially was determined within an error of less than 9% (using AE) and 4% (using DRA). And the specimen on which axial pre-stress and the confining pressure were loaded had an error of less than 17% (using AE) and 14% (using DRA). The results of AE and DRA for field specimens were very similar with each other but smaller than those of hydraulic fracturing method.