• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.33 no.4
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• pp.353-367
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• 2023

The construction of a protective embankment is a suitable strategy to stop and control high-energy rock blocks' impacts during the rockfall phenomenon. In this paper, based on the discrete element numerical method, by modeling an existing embankment reinforced with geogrid, its stability status under the impact of a rock block with two types of low and high kinetic energy, namely 2402 and 4180 kJ, respectively, has been investigated. The modeling results show that the use of geogrid has caused the displacement in the front and back of the embankment to decrease by more than 30%. In this case, the reinforced embankment has stopped the rock block earlier. The displacements obtained from the DEM modeling are compared with the displacements measured from an actual practical experiment to evaluate the results' validity. Comparison between the results shows that the displacement values are close together, while the maximum percentage error in previous studies by an analytical method and the finite element method was 76.4% and 36.6%, respectively. Therefore, the obtained results indicate the discrete numerical method's high ability compared to other numerical and analytical methods to simulate and design the geogrid-reinforced soil embankment under natural disasters such as rockfall with a minor error.

• Journal of the Korean GEO-environmental Society
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• v.10 no.4
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• pp.49-57
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• 2009

The governmental investment to SOC facilities currently has increasedthe construction of new roads and the consistent extension of already-existing roads or the line-shape revision of those roads. As a result, the road cut slopes have been increasingrapidly. Unfortunately, human-life damages and property damages frequently occur due to the rockfall and the landslide every year. To reduce those damages, many studies have been performed. The present regulation regarding rockfall protection facilities follows the "Guide for Installation and Management of Road Safety Facilities" issued by MLTM (the Ministry of Land, Transport, and Maritime Affairs) that indicates the standard size of facilities and energy absorbing efficiencies. Most domestic road slopes use standardized rockfall protection facilities based on the regulation. However, there have been doubted about the effectiveness of rockfall protection facilities and the damages caused by rockfalls havebeen increasedevery year. Thus, it seems that relevant studies are necessary on the rockfall protection net being capable of supporting rockfall energies. Accordingly, this study reviews previous literature to investigate the function and the feature of rockfall protection nets and analyzetheir limitations by each type. After that, by using the pullout test device for a rockfall protection net, an experiment on the PVC coating net and the expanded metal is performed under the exact same condition. Finally, the features of the Expended metal is explained with the comparison analysises of load-variation and the confirmation of damaged forms. As a result, there have been founded the problemsof net breaking down and not being able to support due to PVC coating net's material property of disintegration. On the other hand, the Expanded Metal might be expected as a substituteof rockfall protection net according to its capability of support and integration.

• Journal of the Korean GEO-environmental Society
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• v.11 no.12
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• pp.47-56
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• 2010

The construction of new roads and the consistent extension of already-existing roads or the line-shape revision of those roads are increased with the governmental investment to SOC facilities currently. Accordingly, the road cut slopes are in the trend of rapidly increasing. As the road slope has increased, a lot of human and property damages has entailed consequently and in the local case, numerous studies have carried out aiming at minimizing this damages caused by the rockfall and landslide. In general, standard falling rock prevention facility has employed for most of the local road slope based on "Guide for Installation and Management of Road Safety Facilities" published by MLTM(the Ministry of Land, Transport, and Maritime Affairs) but profound doubt has raised as to whether this rockfall prevention facility would function properly enough to prevent rockfall efficiently without any damages in case of actual occurrence of rockfall. In addition, it is a reality that in most cases, such work is relied on overseas technology as a whole as the local technical level is low and in case of rockfall prevention net, it is judged that a study on rockfall prevention net that is able to endure more powerful rockfall energy is required as the problem including net bursting is taken place as a result of enough bearing force being failed to be demonstrated due to its partial weak point(not uniformly made). Under this background, in this study, three kinds of model depending on mesh size of expanded metal that is considered to have an adoptability as rockfall prevention net, as target are selected and characteristics depending on mesh size of expanded metal is intended to be researched through a pull-out test performance by using pull-out test equipment rockfall prevention net.

• Journal of the Korean GEO-environmental Society
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• v.20 no.12
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• pp.57-64
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• 2019

A man-made slope has been increased due to the construction of road. This slope lies at risk of rock falling, induced mostly by heavy rainfall. The MOLIT (Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport) recommends the specific dimension of rockfall protection fence (post, wire-rope, and mesh) which should resist 48~61 kJ. However, the energy absorption capacity of each component of rockfall protection fence is not clearly presented. Hence, this study made an effort to compute the energy absorption capacity of each component in analytical and numerical method, and compared with each other.

• Journal of the Korean GEO-environmental Society
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• v.23 no.2
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• pp.5-12
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• 2022

In this study, a field test was conducted to present a test method for performance evaluation of a rock fall prevention fence, centering on the vertical drop test among the existing test methods of the rock fall prevention fence. A test to determine the support capacity of a rockfall prevention fence in Korea is usually conducted using a combination of wire mesh, poles, and wire rope, and the location of the impact of falling rocks has been conducted centered on the center of the wire mesh. However, in the case of domestic papers and test data, there is no data on direct hit of post. Therefore, the amount of displacement and weak section were analyzed when the impact on 100kJ class rock energy was hit on the post, centering on the Rockfall Protection fence (highway type No. 2).

• Journal of Conservation Science
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• v.37 no.5
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• pp.505-515
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• 2021

In this study, we evaluated the slope stability of the Pohang Daljeon-ri columnar joint (Natural Monuments # 415) and calculated the maximum energy, jumping height and moving distance of rockfalls using a simulation. Based on the results, we established the range of rockfall risk. The slopes of the Pohang Daljeon-ri columnar joint have dip directions of 93.79°, 131.99°, 165.54° and 259.84° from left (SW) to right (NE). Furthermore, they have a fan-like shape. The Pohang Daljeon-ri columnar joints are divided into four sections depending on the dip direction. The measurement results of the discontinuous face show that zone 1 is 125, zone 2 is 261, zone 3 is 262, zone 4 is 43. The results of slope stability analyses for each section using a stereographic projection method correspond to the range of planar and toppling failure. Although it is difficult to diagnose the type of failure, risk evaluation of currently falling rocks requires further focus. The maximum movement distance of a rockfall in the simulation was approximately 66 m and the rockfall risk range was the entire area under slope. In addition, it is difficult to forecast where a rock will fall as it rolls in various directions due to topographic factors. Thus, the installation of measures to prevent falling is suggested to secure the stability based on the results of the rockfall simulations and its probabilistic analysis.

• Proceedings of the KSR Conference
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• 2005.11a
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• pp.203-210
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• 2005

Rockey slopes adjacent to railways are disclosed from severe weathering and hazard of failure of themselves. Consequently it causes directly rockfall or landsliding on the railway. Conventional solutions-rigid system like rocksheds, shotcrete, retaining walls, etc to these causes are limited to protect train, rail, our properties and lives from the harmful attack - rockfall. debris flow and sliding. Flexible concept for solutions with passive and active type method based on Euro Code 7 capable of high energy absorption and light materials are rapidly replacing the rigid systems with natural friendly, early installation, cost and time saving and reducing danger in works all over the world.

• Tunnel and Underground Space
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• v.29 no.1
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• pp.30-37
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• 2019

Some leading countries in mining have a very quantitative guideline for underground mine opening design which is useful to minimize mine hazards such as rockfall and collapse. Those hazards sometimes can cause a huge damage on human life and property in the mines. Construction guidelines of underground mines in Korea consist of qualitative and general expressions although the workers' safety rules and guides are well provided. Recently, mining operations in Korea are going underground due to the environmental regulations and resource depletion at shallow depth, and therefore there is a growing demand on a specialized and systematic guideline for mine opening design securing the underground stability. In this paper, current status of mining industry, research trends, and mining guidelines in Korea and overseas have been reviewed to give an insight into developing a new Korean guideline for underground mine design.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.26 no.5
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• pp.49-55
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• 2010

The large scale rock falling had occurred on 22nd February, 2007 in the Cheongbuldong valley area of Seoraksan National Park, and the visiting pass had been closed for a while. Similar cases of rock falling have occurred in the latest years according to a great variety of crack, joint, weathering of solid rock and surface water caused by a recent climatic change in the Seoraksan National Park. In this study, rock falling energy was estimated and the movement of rockslide was analysed based on detailed investigation on large scale rockslides occurring at the spot 80 m high from the bottom of the valley. From analysing results, the effective management method for rock falling was proposed. The method could minimized the dangerous factors with no change of natural environment of the National Park.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.84 no.5
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• pp.619-632
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• 2022

Reinforced concrete (RC) structures may be subjected to sudden dynamic impact loads such as explosions occurring for different reasons, the collision of masses driven by rockfall, flood, landslide, and avalanche effect structural members, the crash of vehicles to the highway and seaway structures. Many analytical, numerical, and experimental studies focused on the behavior of RC structural elements such as columns, beams, and slabs under sudden dynamic impact loads. However, there is no comprehensive study on the behavior of the RC column-beam connections under the effect of sudden dynamic impact loads. For this purpose, an experimental study was performed to investigate the behavior of RC column-beam connections under the effect of low-velocity impact loads. Sixteen RC beam-column connections with a scale of 1/3 were manufactured and tested under impact load using the drop-weight test setup. The concrete compressive strength, shear reinforcement spacing in the beam, and input impact energy applied to test specimens were taken as experimental variables. The time histories of impact load acting on test specimens, accelerations, and displacements measured from the test specimens were recorded in experiments. Besides, shear and bending crack widths were measured. The effect of experimental variables on the impact behavior of RC beam-column connections has been determined and interpreted in detail. Besides, a finite element model has been established for verification and comparison of the experimental results by using ABAQUS software. It has been demonstrated that concrete strength, shear reinforcement ratio, and impact energy significantly affect the impact behavior of RC column-beam connections.