• Economic and Environmental Geology
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• v.33 no.4
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• pp.309-320
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• 2000

Aperture is an important parameter for determining the hydraulic characteristics of fractured media. In this study the topography of artificial rock joint surface was measured using 3D laser profilometer to analyze the aperture distribution. The initial aperture distribution was determined when the contact area became one percent of total joint surface. The initial aperture distribution of granite joint, with the mean value of 0.78 mm and the standard deviation of 0.34 mm was much different from that of the marble joint, with the mean value of 0.57 mm and the standard deviation of 0.26 mm. Apertures of both granite and marble showed normal distributions. Aperture distribution with the contact area of 25% was also analyzed. Mean value was decreased to one third compared to the initial aperture, but the standard deviation was decreased slightly. To determine the spatial correlation of the aperture distribution variogram analysis was carried out on the initial aperture data. Most experimental variograms were fitted well with exponential model. It is expected that the measured aperture characteristics can be used for stochastic analysis of fluid flow through rock joints.

• Tunnel and Underground Space
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• v.24 no.2
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• pp.176-186
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• 2014

Roughness, aperture and filling material of rock joint are widely considered to affect the hydraulic characteristics of joint. Among these factors, in this study, the joint roughness was examined with artificial joint profiles generated by Monte Carlo simulating on the original profiles suggested by Barton and Choubey(1977). Original profiles and revised profiles were combined to establish flow channel models, in which the hydraulic characteristics were analyzed numerically on the basis of minimum aperture changes and flow channel shapes. Maximum flow rate was identified at the growing point of flow area after passing through minimum aperture generated by the two profiles, and it was resulted that maximum flow rate is inversely proportional to minimum aperture. Maximum flow rate per unit area showed different values because flow channel shapes and minimum aperture locations are different in each model. In flow channel, mechanical aperture showed approximately 1.07 ~ 3.00 times larger than hydraulic aperture. In this study, mechanical and hydraulic aperture were concluded to be closely related to $A_i$ value, and their relations can be denoted by $e_m=0.519A^{0.7169_i}$ and $e_h=0.6182A^{0.239}_i$, respectively.

• Tunnel and Underground Space
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• v.26 no.4
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• pp.283-292
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• 2016

A computer program code was developed to estimate hydraulic behavior of the 2-D connected pipe network system, and implemented to evaluate the effect of joint aperture on hydraulic parameters of fractured rock masses through numerical experiments. A total of 216 stochastic 2-D DFN(discrete fracture network) blocks of $20m{\times}20m$ were prepared using two joint sets with fixed input parameters of joint orientation, frequency and size distribution. Two different cases of joint aperture variation are considered in this study. The hydraulic parameters were estimated for generated 2-D DFN blocks. The hydraulic anisotropy and the chance for equivalent continuum behavior of the DFN system were found to depend on the variability of joint aperture.

• Tunnel and Underground Space
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• v.4 no.1
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• pp.1-16
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• 1994

The study on the flow characteristics and analysis of groundwater in discontinuous rock mass is very important, since the water inflow into the underground opening during excavation induces serious stability and environmental problems. To investigate the flow through single rock joint, the effect of various aperture distribution on the groundwater flow has been analyzed. Observed through the analysis is the "channel flow", the phenomenon that the flow is dominant along the path of large aperture for given joint. The equivalent hydraulic conductivity is estimated and verified through the application of the joint network analysis for 100 joint maps generated statistically. Both the analytic aproach based on isotropic continuum premise and the joint network analysis are tested and compared analyzing the gorundwater inflow for underground openings of different sizes and varying joint density. The joint network analysis is considered better to reflect the geometric properties of joint distribution in analyzing the groundwater flow.ater flow.

• 한국지구물리탐사학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2003.11a
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• pp.115-121
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• 2003

Discrete joint network approach has widely been used to investigate the hydraulic behavior of jointed rock masses. In general, joints will undergo deformation due to stress redistribution induced by construction of underground openings, hence joint aperture is often assumed to have a probability distribution rather than to be a constant value. In real situations, however, it is more reasonable to take into account the effect of stress change on aperture values by calculating joint deformation. In this report, a mechanical process has been developed to determine the joint opening or closure based on a statistically generated joint network model. By performing numerical analyses, some significant results on the hydro-mechanical behavior of jointed rock masses have been summarized.

• Tunnel and Underground Space
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• v.9 no.4
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• pp.328-336
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• 1999

To characterize the hydro-mechanical behavior of a rock joint, a rotary shear testing apparatus was devised in this study. Shear stress was driven by twisting the end of a sample in the rotary shear testing apparatus. The test results show that the rotary shear test underestimates the peak shear strength of a rock joint. The torque is known as a function of the radial distance from the axis of rotation, resulting in the radial variation of the shear stress. Fluid flow through rock joints is mainly dependent on the Joint roughness, contact area, initial aperture. To examine the dependency, the relationship between the hydraulic and the mechanical apertures for shear-flow was established by measuring the initial aperture. It shows that the mechanical aperture and the hydraulic aperture increase linearly with the dilatancy. The difference between the hydraulic and mechanical apertures describes the deviation from the behavior predicted by the parallel plate model.

• Tunnel and Underground Space
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• v.20 no.2
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• pp.82-91
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• 2010

Grouting technology is one of the ground improvement methods used in water controlling and reinforcement of rock mass in underground structure construction. It is necessarily required to find out the characteristics of grout flow through discontinuities in a rock mass for an adequate grout design and performance assessment. Laminar flow is not always applicable in simulating a grout flow in a rock mass, since the rock joints usually have apertures at a micro-scale and the flow through these joints is affected by the joint roughness and the velocity profile of the flow changes partially near the roughness. Thus, the influence of joint roughness and aperture on the grout flow in rough rock joint was numerically investigated in this study. The commercial computational fluid dynamics code, FLUENT, was applied for this purpose. The computed results by embedded Herschel-Bulkley model and VOF (volume of fluid) model, which are applicable to simulate grout flow in a narrow rock joint that is filled with air and water, were well compared with that of analytical results and previously published laboratory test for the verification. The injection pressure required to keep constant injection rate of grout was calculated in a variety of Joint Roughness Coefficient (JRC) and aperture conditions, and the effect of joint roughness and aperture on grout flow were quantified.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.15 no.5
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• pp.229-240
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• 1999

The groundwater flow and grout flow in individual rock joint and jointed rock mass are studied using various methods of analysis such as (i) the finite difference method, (ii) channel network analysis and (iii) joint network analysis. The flow behaviour is investigated in two distinguishable scales of observation: one for a rough joint of a laboratory scale having variable aperture, and the other for field- scale rock masses having three sets of intermittent joints. In the former case, the aperture-dependent channel flow is identified for both water and grout flows. The comparison of the flow rate in a rough joint is made between the finite difference analysis and existing analytical solution. In the latter case, the effects of increasing number of joints on the groundwater inflow into a circular opening of various diameters are analyzed using both the joint network method and Goodman's analytic solution. Comparisons are made between the two methods. The boundary effects in the joint network method are discussed. The inhomogeneity of joint network and its impacts on the groundwater inflow are also discussed.

• Tunnel and Underground Space
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• v.10 no.1
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• pp.45-58
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• 2000

Cyclic shear test system, which is capable of measuring flow rate inside rock joint, was established to investigate the hydraulic behavior of rough rock joints under various loading conditions. Laboratory hydraulic tests during compression and shear were conducted for artificial rough rock joints. Prior to tests, aperture characteristics of specimens were examined by measuring surface topography. Permeability changes under compression were well approximated with several hydraulic model. Hydraulic behavior conformed to dilation characteristics in the first stage, and permeability increased with increase of dilation. As the shear displacement progressed, flow rate became somewhat constant due to gouge production and offset of apertures. Hydraulic behavior under cyclic shear loading was also influenced by the degradation of asperities and gouge production. In addition. the relation between hydraulic aperture and mechanical aperture under compression and shear loading was investigated and compared.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society for Rock Mechanics Conference
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• 2000.09a
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• pp.117-128
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• 2000

The development of proper joint model, which can describe real phenomena exactly and still can be used easily, is one of the most important element for the analysis of the mechanical and hydraulic behavior of discontinuous rock mass. In this study, an elasto-plastic constitutive model of joint behavior considering asperity degradation was extended with the concept of first and second order asperities. The proposed model was implemented to numerical code with discrete finite joint element. The parametric study with the various asperity angles and degradation coefficients showed that the model can reproduce the shear behavior of typical rough joints well. Results of laboratory monotonic and cyclic shear tests were compared with those of numerical tests to validate the model. The hydraulic model considering the relations between gouge production and aperture was introduced to the mechanical model. In an attempt to examine the performance of the model, comparative numerical test was conducted. Permeability between joint surfaces increased rapidly at the first stage, but became nearly constant with increasing shear displacement due to gouge production and uniform variation of aperture distribution.