• Tunnel and Underground Space
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• v.32 no.6
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• pp.397-410
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• 2022

The safety of the disposal repository for high level radioactive waste should be guaranteed for a quite long period so that the precise evaluations are required. The site characteristics of the discontinuities are essential part of the safe repository design including engineered barrier and natural barrier systems. The discontinuities act like weak planes and at the same time, they act as flow paths so that their features should be investigated thoroughly. RQD (Rock Quality Designation) is one of the most widely applied characterizing methods due to its simplicity, however, modified designations have been proposed because RQD has some drawbacks, such as its directivity and dependence on the threshold length. This study aims to evaluate the applicability of the modified designations by applying them to the rock mass around KURT and to produce fundamental database that will be utilized in future studies.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.13 no.4
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• pp.571-584
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• 2017

Slope mass rating (SMR) is commonly used for the geomechanical classification of rock masses in an attempt to evaluate the stability of slopes. SMR is calculated from the $RMR_{89-basic}$ (basic rock mass rating) and from the characteristic features of discontinuities, and may be applied to slope stability analysis as well as to slope support recommendations. This study attempts to utilize the SMR classification system for slope stability analysis and to investigate the engineering geological conditions of the slopes and the slope stability analysis of the Gas Flare site in phases 6, 7 and 8 of the South Pars Gas Complex in Assalouyeh, south of Iran. After studying a total of twelve slopes, the results of the SMR classification system indicated that three slope failure modes, namely, wedge, plane and mass failure were possible along the slopes. In addition, the stability analyses conducted by a number of computer programs indicated that three of the slopes were stable, three of the slopes were unstable and the remaining six slopes were categorized as 'needs attention'classes.

• Proceedings of the Korean Geotechical Society Conference
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• 2010.09a
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• pp.658-663
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• 2010

Recently the most of deep foundation were socketed into weathered rock or soft rock to carry large foundation loads. The end bearing behavior of piles socketed in rock is generally dependent on the rock mass conditions with discontinuities and rock strength. Therefore, it is very important that the estimating rock classification with relation of TCR, RQD and unpredicted rock condition. In this study, the construction failure example of drilled shaft due to mistaking to estimate the rock classification on penetration were analyzed in site, so we hope to discuss problems of determining the rock socketed length of drilled shaft on construction.

• Proceedings of the Korean Geotechical Society Conference
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• 2008.03a
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• pp.842-847
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• 2008

Despite of the increasing number of the application of the drilled shaft pile in construction site, most of the study of pile capacity has been centered side shear resistance. But it is common that the drilled shaft is socketed on the rock so as to use the bearing resistance, so prediction of the toe's movement and characteristic of the bearing capacity is important as the side shear resistance. Therefore the model tests were performed in order to study the characteristic of bearing capacity on rock mass. The material of the test blocks were the mortar which was mixed with sand, cement and water, and test block size was $240{\times}240{\times}240mm$. Load was pressed by the 45mm of diameter of miniaturized pile and plate jack and steal plate were used to the confined stress for representing the underground condition. The relation of load-displacement was measured in many different conditions of rock mass such as direction of discontinuities, spacing and strength, and q-w curves of the toe of the pile were verified in each condition.

• The Journal of Engineering Geology
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• v.7 no.2
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• pp.91-99
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• 1997

In general, there are various approaches available in literature to model discontinuous rock masses and engineers are often confused which one to use for designing structures in rock masses. Modelling rock masses can be classified mainly into two approaches. One is discrete modelling of intact rock and discontinuities and the other is the equivalent continuum modelling. In this study five models are selected ;(1) Crack tensor model, (2) Equivalent volume defect model, (3) Damage model, (4) Micro - structure model (Parallel model and Series model), and (5) Homogenization model. Most of these models are mainly concerned with how to define additional strain due to discontinuities over the representative elementary volume (REV) and how to relate the stress field of discontinuities to that acting on the REV. The characteristics of these models are clarified by comparing with results of some laboratory tests.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.20 no.1
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• pp.1-7
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• 2020

In structures excavated in rock mass, load progressively increases to a level and remains constant during the construction. Rocks display different elastic properties such as E_i and ʋ under different loading conditions and this requires to use the true values of elastic properties for the design of safe structures in rock. Also, rocks will undergo horizontal and vertical deformations depending on the amount of load applied. However, under constant loads, values of E_i and ʋ will vary in time and induce variations in the behavior of the rock mass. In some empirical equations in which deformation modulus of the rock mass is taken into consideration, elastic parameters of intact rock become functions in the equation. Hence, the use of time dependent elastic properties determined under constant loading will yield more reliable results than when only constant elastic properties are used. As well known, rock material will play an important role in the deformation mechanism since the discontinuities will be closed due to the load. In this study, E_i and ʋ values of intact rocks were investigated under different constant loads for certain rocks with high deformation capabilities. The results indicated significant time dependent variations in elastic properties under constant loading conditions. E_i value obtained from deformability test was found to be higher than the E_i value obtained from the constant loading test. This implies that when static values of elastic properties are used, the material is defined as more elastic than the rock material itself. In fact, E_i and ʋ values embedded in empirical equations are not static. Hence, this workattempts to emerge a new understanding in designing of safer structures in rock mass by numerical methods. The use of time-dependent values of E_i and ʋ under different constant loads will yield more accurate results in numerical modeling analysis.

• 한국터널공학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2005.04a
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• pp.348-358
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• 2005

Although the evaluation of the mechanical properties and behavior of discontinuous rock masses is very important for the design of underground openings, it has always been considered the most difficult problem. One of the difficulties in describing the rock mass behavior is assigning the appropriate constitutive model. This limitation may be overcome with the progress in discrete element software such as PFC, which does not need the user to prescribe a constitutive model for rock mass. Instead, the micro-scale properties of the intact rock and joints are defined and the macro-scale response results from those properties and the geometry of the problem. In this paper, a $30m{\times}30m{\times}30m$ jointed rock mass of road tunnel site was analyzed. A discrete fracture network was developed from the joint geometry obtained from core logging and surface survey. Using the discontinuities geometry from the DFN model, PFC simulations were carried out, starting with the intact rock and systematically adding the joints and the stress-strain response was recorded for each case. With the stress-strain response curves, the mechanical properties of discontinuous rock masses were determined and compared to the results of empirical methods such as RMR, Q and GSI. The values of Young's modulus, Poisson's ratio and peak strength are almost similar from PFC model and Empirical methods. As expected, the presence of joints had a pronounced effect on mechanical properties of the rock mass. More importantly, the mechanical response of the PFC model was not determined by a user specified constitutive model.

• Tunnel and Underground Space
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• v.31 no.6
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• pp.561-577
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• 2021

The compacted bentonite buffer in a geological repository for high-level radioactive waste disposal is saturated due to groundwater inflow. Saturation of the bentonite buffer results in bentonite swelling and bentonite penetration into the rock discontinuities present around the disposal hole. The penetrated bentonite is exposed to groundwater flow and can be eroded out of the repository, resulting in bentonite mass loss which can affect the physical integrity of the engineered barrier system. Hence, the evaluation of buffer-rock interactions and coupled behavior due to groundwater inflow and bentonite penetration is necessary to ensure long-term disposal safety. In this study, the effects of the bentonite penetration and swelling on the physical properties of jointed rock mass were evaluated using the quasi-static resonant column test. Jointed rock specimens with bentonite penetration were manufactured using Gyeongju bentonite and hollow cylindrical granite rock discs obtained from the KAERI underground research tunnel. The effects of vertical stress and saturation were assessed using the P-wave and S-wave velocities for intact rock, jointed rock and jointed rock with bentonite penetration specimens. The joint normal and joint shear stiffnesses of each joint condition were inferred from the wave velocity results assuming an equivalent continuum. The joint normal and joint shear stiffnesses obtained from this study can be used as input factors for future numerical analysis on the performance evaluation of geological waste disposal considering rock discontinuities.

• Economic and Environmental Geology
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• v.42 no.4
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• pp.357-366
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• 2009

Since weathering weakens the rock fabric and exaggerates any structural weakness, it affects mechanical properties as well as physical and chemical properties of rock. Weathering leads to a decrease in density, strength, friction angle and cohesion, and subsequently it affects negatively on the stability of rock slope. The purpose of the study is to investigate the changes of the rock slope stability caused by discontinuities which have different weathering grades. For that, the discontinuity samples which are divided into two different weathering grades are obtained from the field and tested their mechanical properties such as JCS, JRC and residual friction angle. In order to evaluate the effects on the stability of slope due to weathering, the deterministic analysis is carried out. That is, the factors of safety for planar failure are calculated for rock masses which have two different weathering grades, such as fresh and weathered rock mass. However, since the JRC and friction angle values are widely scattered and the deterministic analysis cannot consider the variation, the factors of safety cannot represent properly the stability of the rock slope. Therefore, the probabilistic analysis has been used to consider the scattered values. In the deterministic analysis, the factors of safety for the fresh discontinuity and weathered discontinuity are 1.25 and 1.0, respectively. The results indicate the fresh discontinuities are stable for planar failure and the weathered discontinuities are marginally stable. However, the probabilities of failure for the fresh discontinuity and weathered discontinuity are 25.6% and 45.9%, respectively. This shows that both discontinuities are analyzed as unstable in the probabilistic analysis.

• Proceedings of the Korean Geotechical Society Conference
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• 2006.03a
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• pp.939-948
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• 2006

The structural anisotropy and heterogeneity of rock mass, caused by discontinuities and weak zones, have a great influence on the deformation behavior of tunnel. Tunnel construction in these complex ground conditions is very difficult. No matter how excellent a geological investigation is, local uncertainties of rock mass conditions still remain. Under these uncertain circumstances, an accurate forecast of the ground conditions ahead of the advancing tunnel face is indispensable to safe and economic tunnel construction. This paper presents the effect of anisotropy and heterogeneity of the rock masses to be excavated by numerical analysis. The influences of distance from weak zone, the size or dimension, the different stiffness and the orientation of weak zones are analysedby 2-D and 3-D finite element analysis. By analysing these numerical results, the tunnel behavior due to excavation can be well understood and the prediction of rock mass condition ahead of tunnel face can be possible.