• The Journal of Engineering Geology
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• v.26 no.3
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• pp.307-314
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• 2016

Shear characteristics of soils can be investigated using various types of shear stress measuring apparatus. Ring shear tests are often applied for examining the residual shear strength under the unlimited deformation. This paper presents drainage-consolidation-shear velocity dependent undrained shear strengths measured in terms of water leakage. A series of ring shear tests were performed under the constant normal stress (50 kPa) and controled shear velocity ranging from 0.01~1 mm/sec under the undrained condition. As a result, undrained shear strengths are dependent on shear velocity. It exhibits that straining hardening behavior is observed for the shear velocity lower than 0.1 mm/sec; however, the strain softening behavior is observed for the shear velocity higher than 0.1 mm/sec. Water leakage can cause the increase in shear stress irrespective of shear velocity. Shear stress increases with increasing amount of water leakage. It is due to the fact that the small grains and water flow out through the rubble edge in the ring shear box. Repetitive saturation and consolidation processes may minimize the error.

• Economic and Environmental Geology
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• v.38 no.3 s.172
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• pp.237-245
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• 2005

The batch tests were performed to evaluate the applicability of the permeable reactive barrier (PRB) to in-situ treatment of groundwater with high concentration of heavy metals. The lead\chates used in this study were collected from waste rock dump of the Imgy mine, and have a low pH and high metal concentration. The acidity loading was 65kg as $CaCO_3/day$, metal loading of Fe+Al+Mn was 11.6kg/day. This type of water could be treated with biological-mediated sulfate reduction using the organic carbon mixture as a reactive media. The batch tests were carried out with five mixtures that were composed with different mixing ratios of mushroom compost, pine-tree bark, and limestone cheep. Results indicated that the PRB could reduce the acidity loading $CaCO_3/day$ to 12.3kg and reduce the metal loading to 3.3kg/day. Considering about the low pH and high metal loading, the contaminated water may be ameliorated by passing it through the buffering PRB composed with inorganic carbonate materials and then through the PRB composed with the organic carbon mixture which can induce sulfate reduction.

• Journal of Korea Water Resources Association
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• v.40 no.6 s.179
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• pp.469-483
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• 2007

Nitrate and chloride are the most common contaminants in groundwater and their concentrations increase easily due to fertilizer consumption and urbanization. The number of time series data for groundwater quality at a single site was not sufficient to analyze trends on Jeju Island. Therefore rectangle grids were drawn for the whole island and single grid was determined to be $500m{\times}500m$ after considering similar stream density, homogeneous hydraulic coefficients, geologic features of volcanic rock and low topographic slopes. All data within each lattice were collected and arranged in time series order and analyzed using Sen's method. 10.6 % of the total lattices for chloride and 22.4% for nitrate showed upward trends from the early 1990's to the early 2000's. Especially, upward trends for nitrate concentration are distinct in the low mid-mountainous areas of western and southern watersheds. Many septic tanks and much domestic waste from the urbanization of the low mid-mountainous area have produced this upward trend. Additionally, the agricultural region has dramatically increased since the 1990's and this has led to an increase of fertilizer consumption and, as a result, nitrate concentration. Therefore, the target of any management plan for groundwater quality on Jeiu Island needs to be focused on careful land use decisions in the mid-mountainous areas which are near Halla Mountain.

• Economic and Environmental Geology
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• v.23 no.4
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• pp.425-452
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• 1990

A tentative hydrogeologic and hydrodispersive study was carried out to evaluate the groundwater pollution potential at a selected site by utilizing empirical assessment methodologies in an advanced stage of quantitative computer aided assessment. The upper most aquifer is defind as saturated overburden and weathered zone including the upper part of highly fractured rock. Representative hydraulic conductivity and storativity of the uppermost aquifer are estimated at 2.88 E-6 m/s and 0.09, respectively. Also calculated Darcian and average linear velocity of groundwater along the major pathway are 0.011 m/d and 0.12 m/d with average hydraulic gradient of 4.6% in the site. The results of empirical assessment methodologies indicate that 1) DRASTIC depicts that the site is situated on non-sensitive and non-vulnerable area. 2) Legrand numerical rating system shows that the probability of contamination and degree of acceptability are classed to "Maybe-Improbable, and Probable Acceptable and Marginally Unacceptable" with situation grade of "B". 3)Waste soil-site interaction matrix assessment categorizes that the study site is located on "Class-8 Site".

• Journal of the Mineralogical Society of Korea
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• v.23 no.4
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• pp.347-356
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• 2010

Bauxite is a main raw material for the production of alumina and aluminum hydroxide in the processing plant of KC company. It is a NORM (Naturally Occurring Radioactive Materials), and its waste, red mud, is a TENORM (Technologically Enhanced Naturally Occurring Radioactive Materials). The purpose of the geochemical and mineralogical investigations of the bedrock and soils in and around the plant, a large NORM source, was to provide basic data for measuring the radiation dose and protecting from radioactive hazards. Soils were mixtures of minerals derived from the country rock (quartz, feldspar, mica, kaolin, gibbsite, and sepiolite) and bauxite (hematite, boehmite, and calcite) of open-air storage. Average U and Th contents of the soil samples were 4.7 ppm and 23 ppm, respectively, indicating somewhat Th anomaly. The average concentrations of radionuclides are $^{40}K$ 100~1,433 Bq/kg, $^{226}Ra$ anomaly in the red mud open-air storage. Soil external hazard indices range from 0.10 to 1.66 with an average of 0.63. Although most of the indices are below 1.0 that is a regulation value, those of 4 samples of total 41 soil samples exceed 1.0, requiring further detailed investigation.

• Economic and Environmental Geology
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• v.38 no.4 s.173
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• pp.451-462
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• 2005

In order to examine the extent of environmental contamination at abandoned Samsanjeil Cu mines in Kosung-kun, Kyeongsangnam-do, we have investigated the contaminations and mobility of toxic trace elements from mine wastes including about 280,000 tonnages of tailings by chemical experiments (total extraction, partial extraction by 0.1N HCI and sequential extraction procedure). Total concentrations of trace elements showed that Cu, As, Co, Zn, Pb, and Cd concentrations in tailings were 14.0, 3.6, 3.1, 2.1, 2.1 and 1.6 times greater than those in background soil, respectively. From the proportion of metals bound to the exchangeable and carbonate fractions, the comparative mobility of metals decrease in order of $Zn(29.0\%)>Cu(12.3\%)Pb(9.6\%)>Cd(3.0\%)>As=Co(0.0\%)$. Based on the concentrations, chemical speciations of tailings, waste rock and nearby soil, it was revealed that Cu and Zn were the most possible elements to contaminate the surrounding environment in Samsanjeil mine area. In addition, the tailings had total trace metal concentrations below Dutch guideline values except Cu, and they might not affect adverse impact on environment.

• KSCE Journal of Civil and Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.41 no.2
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• pp.123-131
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• 2021

The buffer is a key component of an engineered barrier system that safeguards the disposal of high-level radioactive waste. Buffers are located between disposal canisters and host rock, and they can restrain the release of radionuclides and protect canisters from the inflow of ground water. Since considerable heat is released from a disposal canister to the surrounding buffer, the thermal conductivity of the buffer is a very important parameter in the entire disposal safety. For this reason, a lot of research has been conducted on thermal conductivity prediction models that consider various factors. In this study, the thermal conductivity of a buffer is estimated using the machine learning methods of: linear regression, decision tree, support vector machine (SVM), ensemble, Gaussian process regression (GPR), neural network, deep belief network, and genetic programming. In the results, the machine learning methods such as ensemble, genetic programming, SVM with cubic parameter, and GPR showed better performance compared with the regression model, with the ensemble with XGBoost and Gaussian process regression models showing best performance.

• Explosives and Blasting
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• v.41 no.3
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• pp.38-61
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• 2023

An Excavation Damaged Zone(EDZ) caused by blasting impact changes rock properties, in situ stress distribution, etc., and its effects are noticeable at around a radioactive waste repository located at deep underground. In particular, the increase in permeability due to the formation of cracks may significantly increase the amount of groundwater inflow and the possibility of radioactive nuclide outflow. In this study, FLAC2D and FLAC3D were used to analyze the mechanical and thermal behaviors for three categories: a)No EDZ, b)Uniform EDZ, and c)Random EDZ. It was found that the tunnel displacement in the Random EDZ case was 423% higher than that in the No EDZ case and was 16% higher than that in the Uniform EDZ case. Tunnel inflow in the Random EDZ was also 17.3% and 10.8% higher than that in the No EDZ and the Uniform EDZ case, respectively. The permeability around the tunnel was increased by up to 10 times in the corner of the tunnel wall and roof due to the stress redistribution after excavation. From the computer simulation, it was found that the permeability around the tunnel wall was partially increased but the overall tunnel inflow was decreased with increase of stress ratio. Mechanical analysis using FLAC 3D showed similar results. Slight difference between 2D and 3D could be explained with the development of plastic zone during the advance of tunnel excavation in 3D.

• Journal of Soil and Groundwater Environment
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• v.7 no.3
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• pp.115-132
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• 2002

To distinguish the anthropogenic inputs from the chemical weathering with water-rock interaction on the chemical compositons of groundwater in Kwangju city, four different water groups were established based on the landuse type, lithology and topology. The sample from greenbelt area belongs to Group Ⅰ, whereas those from green buffer zone, urban area and industrial area belong to Group II, Group Ⅲ and Group Ⅳ, respectively. The geology of this city mainly consists of biotite granite and granitic gneiss. The concentration of main cations is subject to the behavior of feldspars, micas and carbonate minerals. Cl$\^$-/ and NO$_3$$\^$-/ are supplied by anthropogenic inputs such as domestic sewage whose concentration of these anions is highest in the Group Ⅲ samples. With the Piper diagram, the groundwaters of Group Ⅲ are mainly plotted in CaSO$_4$-CaCl$_2$ type, whereas those of other groups are plotted in Ca(HCO$_3$)$_2$ type, The calculation for the activities of ions and saturation indices of some minerals shows that most of the minerals are undersaturated and plotted in the area of equlibrium with kaolinite. Three factors were extracted from the factor analysis for chemical data. Factor 1 controlled by HCO$_3$$\^$-/, Ca$\^$2-/, SO$_4$$\^$2-/, Mg$\^$2+/ and Na$\^$+/, explains the dissolution of carbonate minerals. mica and plagioclase. Factor 2, controlled by Cl$\^$-/ and NO$_3$$\^$-/, explains the influence of artificial pollution. Factor 3, controlled by Mn, Fe and Zn is subject to the industrial waste water, but the evidence is not clear. Factor 1 is dominant in the Group I and II, indicating that those samples are subjected to natural chemical weathering, The higher scores of factor 2 in the Group Ⅲ samples indicate the potential artificial pollution.

• Tunnel and Underground Space
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• v.28 no.6
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• pp.670-691
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• 2018

This study presents the research results of the BMT(Benchmark Model Test) simulations of the DECOVALEX-2019 project Task B. Task B named 'Fault slip modelling' is aiming at developing a numerical method to predict fault reactivation and the coupled hydro-mechanical behavior of fault. BMT scenario simulations of Task B were conducted to improve each numerical model of participating group by demonstrating the feasibility of reproducing the fault behavior induced by water injection. The BMT simulations consist of seven different conditions depending on injection pressure, fault properties and the hydro-mechanical coupling relations. TOUGH-FLAC simulator was used to reproduce the coupled hydro-mechanical process of fault slip. A coupling module to update the changes in hydrological properties and geometric features of the numerical mesh in the present study. We made modifications to the numerical model developed in Task B Step 1 to consider the changes in compressibility, Permeability and geometric features with hydraulic aperture of fault due to mechanical deformation. The effects of the storativity and transmissivity of the fault on the hydro-mechanical behavior such as the pressure distribution, injection rate, displacement and stress of the fault were examined, and the results of the previous step 1 simulation were updated using the modified numerical model. The simulation results indicate that the developed model can provide a reasonable prediction of the hydro-mechanical behavior related to fault reactivation. The numerical model will be enhanced by continuing interaction and collaboration with other research teams of DECOVALEX-2019 Task B and validated using the field experiment data in a further study.