• Journal of the Korean GEO-environmental Society
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• v.15 no.1
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• pp.53-62
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• 2014

In Korea, in general, separation distance between existing parallel tunnels was set at two to five times as distant as the diameter of the tunnels according to ground conditions. Recently, however, actual applicability of closely spaced parallel tunnels whose distance between tunnel centers was shorter than the diameter has increased due to environmental damages resulting from massive cutting, restriction in purchase of required land, and maintenance of linear continuity. In particular, when the pillar width of tunnel decreases, the safety of pillars affects behaviors of the tunnel and therefore the need for diverse relevant studies has emerged. However, research so far has been largely confined to analysis of behavior characteristics of pillars, or parameters affecting design, and actually applicable and quantitative data have not been presented. Accordingly, in order to present a stability evaluation method which may maximally reflect construction conditions of spots, this study reflected topographical and stratigraphic characteristics of the portal part with the highest closeness between the tunnels, simulated multi-layer conditions with rock mass and complete weathering, and assessed the degree of effect the stability of pillars had on the entire tunnels through numerical analysis according to changes in pillar width by ground strength. This study also presented composite analysis result on ground surface settlement rates, interference volume rates, and average strength to stress and a formula, which may be applicable to actual work, to evaluate safety rates of closely spaced parallel tunnel pillars and minimum pillar width by ground strength based on failure criteria by Hoek-Brown (1980).

• Journal of Korean Tunnelling and Underground Space Association
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• v.15 no.5
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• pp.537-546
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• 2013

Traffic congestion in existing tunnels has increased due to increased traffic volume and enlarged vehicles. Enlarging existing tunnels has advantages over constructing new tunnels by reducing land purchasing costs as well as minimizing natural environment destruction. In fact, many overseas projects for enlarging existing tunnels have been reported. Thus, it appears that the demand on enlarging existing tunnels continues to rise in Korea in near future. Nonetheless, the studies related to the enlarged tunnels have been relatively rare since there have been few tunnel enlargement projects in Korea. In the present study, the tunnel behavior and the stability of rock pillar when enlarging existing parallel tunnels were investigated by performing FE analysis and using existing theory and empirical relationships. Four different enlarging cases, depending on the enlargement types and directions, were examined in the study. According to the results, for the tunnels with the same pillar width after enlarged, the uni-laterally enlarged tunnel indicated 5 to 20% higher crown settlement compared to the bi-laterally enlarged tunnel, and for the tunnel with the narrowest pillar, the highest shotcrete stress was observed. Also, the strength/stress ratio for rock pillar was more than 1.0 for all four enlargement cases, and the Matsuda's method was found to give higher strength/stress ratio by about 50% compared to the Peck's method.

• Tunnel and Underground Space
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• v.24 no.4
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• pp.297-307
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• 2014

Cavern Thermal Energy Storage system stores thermal energy in caverns to recover industrial waste heat or avoid the sporadic characteristics of renewable-energy resources, and its advantages include high injection-and-extraction powers and the flexibility in selecting a storage medium. In the present study, the structural stability of rock mass pillar between these silo-type storage caverns was assessed using a coupled thermal-mechanical model in $FLAC^{3D}$. The results of numerical simulations showed that thermal stresses due to long-term storage depended on pillar width and had significant effect on the pillar stability. A sensitivity analysis of main factors indicated that the influence on the pillar stability increased in the order cavern depth < pillar width < in situ condition. It was suggested that two identical caverns should be separated by at least one diameter of the cavern and small-diameter shaft neighboring the cavern should be separated by more than half of the cavern diameter. Meanwhile, when the line of centers of two caverns was parallel to the direction of maximum horizontal principal stress, the shielding effect of the caverns could minimize an adverse effect caused by a large horizontal stress.

• Journal of Korean Tunnelling and Underground Space Association
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• v.16 no.3
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• pp.299-310
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• 2014

Nationally, tunnel and underground constructions are necessary for the environmental sustainability and the efficient use of land space. For the importance of eco-friendly circumstances, 2-arch or large road tunnel has been designed so far. However, such a 2-arch or large tunnel has problems in terms of cost, constructability, construction period, and maintenance. Therefore, in this study, tunnel behavior and stability of rock pillar according to the pillar width and cover depth for parallel tunnels are investigated by performing FE analysis and using empirical formula. According to the results, Rock pillar is reinforced for distributed vertical load by Tie-Bolt due to unpredicted ground deformation, and the reinforced rock pillar's behaviour from the FE analysis shows a quite good agreement with field measurement. According to ground conditions, if the pillar width of the parallel tunnels is reduced, it can be more efficient in use of the tunnel space compared to previous tunnels.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.14 no.5
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• pp.421-428
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• 2018

In deep mining, the lateral deformation of strip coal pillar appears to be a new characteristic. In order to study the lateral deformation of coal-mass, a monitoring method and monitoring instrument were designed to investigate the lateral deformation of strip coal pillar in Tangkou Coalmine with the mining depth of over 1000 m. Because of without influence of repeated mining, the bedding sandstone roof is easy to break and the angle between maximum horizontal stress and the roadway is small, the maximum lateral deformation is only about 287 mm lower than the other pillars in the same coalmine. In deep mining, the energy accumulation and release cause a discontinuous damage in the heterogeneous coal-mass, and the lateral deformation of coal pillar shows discontinuity, step and mutation characters. These coal-masses not only show a higher plasticity but also the high brittleness at the same time, and its burst tendency is more obvious. According to the monitoring results and theoretical calculations, the yield zone of the coal pillar width is determined as 15.6 m. The monitoring results presented through this study are of great significance to the stability analysis and design of coal pillar.

• Tunnel and Underground Space
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• v.24 no.5
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• pp.335-343
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• 2014

Room-and-pillar mining method is one of the most popular underground mining method in the world. If the room-and-pillar mining method is able to be adopted in civil works, it would be highly probable to reduce underground construction costs and to expand a underground structure in use. Therefore, this study aims to analyze the design procedure of unsupported rock pillars which are indispensable to ensure the stability of a room-and-pillar underground structure. Parametric studies on their key design parameters are also carried out for 125 different kinds of design conditions. From the study, the width of a rock pillar is found to show a linear relationship with its corresponding safety factor. The safety factor of a unsupported rock pillar decreased drastically like a negative exponential function as the ratio of room width to pillar width increases in the same rock strength condition. Based on the parametric studies, a design chart to simply evaluate the geometric design parameters of a unsupported rock pillar satisfying a design safety factor is also proposed in this study.

• Proceedings of the Korean Geotechical Society Conference
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• 2006.03a
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• pp.980-987
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• 2006

Recently, twin-tunnel is often designed considering the aspects of disaster prevention and economic reasons. However, the design cases and the studies are relatively insufficient. By the twin-tunnel excavation, deviate stresses of pillar between tunnels are increased and the increased stresses induce the instability of the twin-tunnel. In this study, numerical analyses about the twin-tunnel behaviour are conducted while varying ground strength, width of pillar and depth of earth cover and a series of regression analyses are carried out by using the results of numerical analyses for the twin-tunnel. Based on the numerical analyses, an estimation method of derived stresses is suggested though the regression analyses. Also, based on the results of regression analyses, an quantitative estimation method considering the reinforcement effects is also suggested. Then various parametric studies are conducted to be considered the reinforcement type and various design parameters. Finally, the efficiency of the suggested method is verified through the results of parametric studies.

• Journal of Korean Tunnelling and Underground Space Association
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• v.17 no.4
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• pp.499-511
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• 2015

A room-and-pillar underground structure is characterized by its grid-type array of galleries. As a result, its construction and economical efficiency can be governed by excavation sequence of galleries. Therefore, this study aims to study the optimum excavation scheme of a room-and-pillar underground structure by considering its various design factors such as ground conditions and excavation sequences. Drill-and-blast method is assumed as a excavation method for a room-and-pillar underground structure. In addition, two kinds of excavation patterns corresponding to a concurrent and a sequential excavation patterns are considered in this study. For the assumed conditions, the structural stability and the construction efficiency based on the number of faces and the travel distance of a jumbo drilling machine are analyzed for the two excavation patterns. Even though the two kinds of excavation patterns show almost the same structural stability as each other, the concurrent excavation pattern is relatively preferable to the sequential excavation pattern in terms of the number of faces in operation and travel distance of a drilling jumbo.

• Journal of the Korean GEO-environmental Society
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• v.12 no.11
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• pp.39-49
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• 2011

In this paper it was focused on the characteristics of displacement and stress due to the construction of diagonal twin tunnel. In this research, the characteristics have been analyzed with the presumption that the tunnel's diameter (D) is 13m and the ground was formed by weathered rock. In analysis, the width of pillar is 2.0D, 2.5D, 3.0D, the height of soil cover is 3D, 4D, 5D, and the installation angle of diagonal twin tunnel has been changed into $15^{\circ}$, $30^{\circ}$, $45^{\circ}$. And the program used in this analysis is FLAC which is widely used in solution problems of ground engineering in order to gain and analyze occurring shotcrete and rockbolt stress and nearby ground displacement according to pillar width, the height of soil cover and installation angle of diagonal twin tunnel. As a result, in the weathered rock grounds, when the width of pillar is more than 2.0D, the height of soil cover is over 5.0D, and the installation angle of diagonal twin tunnel is lower, they lessen effects on the ground and favorable on the stability of tunnel.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.19 no.5
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• pp.211-221
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• 2003

At Aspo hard rock laboratory in Sweden, an in-situ heater experiment called "$\"{A}"{s}"{p}"{o}$ Pillar Stability Experiment (APSE)" is prepared to assess capability to predict spatting and stability in a rock mass between deposition holes for radioactive waste. To Predict reasonably fracturing process at rock pillar under a planned configuration before testing, a boundary element code FRACOD has been applied for modelling. The code has been improved to simulate explicitly fracture evolution both at rock boundaries and in intact rocks. A new inverse stress reconstruction technique using boundary element has been also developed to transfer stress field by excavation and thermal loading into the FRACOD model. This article presents the results from predictive modelling far the planned in-situ test condition. Excavation induced stresses might cause slight fracturing in the pillar walls. Typical shear fractures have been initiated and propagated near central pillar walls during 120 days of heating, but overall rock mass remained stable under the considered configuration. The effects of pre-existing joints and properties of fractures are also discussed. It is found from the results that FRACOD can properly model essential rock spatting and propagation at deep tunnels and boreholes.at deep tunnels and boreholes.