• Journal of Korean Tunnelling and Underground Space Association
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• v.14 no.4
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• pp.293-308
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• 2012

The shear behavior at the particle/surface interface such as rock joint can determine the mechanical behavior of whole structure. Therefore, a fundamental understanding of the mechanisms governing its behavior and accurately estimation of the interface strength is essential. In this paper, PFC, a numerical analysis program of discrete element method was used to investigate the effects of the surface roughness on interface strength. The surface roughness was characterized by smooth, intermediate, and rough surface, respectively. In order to investigate the effects of particle shape and crushing on particle/surface interface behavior, one ball, clump, and cluster models were created and their results were compared. The shape of particle was characterized by circle, triangle, square, and rectangle, respectively. The results showed that as the surface roughness increases, interface strength and friction angle increase and the void ratio increases. The one ball model with smooth surface shows lower interface strength and friction angle than the clump model with irregular surface. In addition, a cluster model has less interface strength and friction angle than the clump model. The failure envelope of the cluster model shows non-linear characteristic. From these findings, it is verified that the surface roughness and particle shape effect on the particle/surface interface shear behavior.

• Journal of Korean Tunnelling and Underground Space Association
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• v.14 no.4
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• pp.321-336
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• 2012

The shear behavior at the particle/surface interface such as rock joint can determine the mechanical behavior of whole structure. Therefore, a fundamental understanding of the mechanisms governing its behavior and accurately estimation of the interface strength is essential. In this paper, PFC, a numerical analysis program of discrete element method was used to investigate the effects of the surface roughness crushing on interface strength. The surface roughness was characterized by smooth, intermediate, and rough surface, respectively. Particle shape was classified into one ball model of circular shape and 3 ball model of triangular shape. The surface shape was modelled by wall model of non-crushing surface and ball model of crushing surface. The results showed that as the bonding strength of ball model decreases, lower interface strength is induced. After the surface roughness crushing was occurred, the interface strength tended to converge and higher bonding strength induced lower surface roughness crushing. Higher friction angle was induced in wall model and higher surface roughness induced the higher friction angle. From these findings, it is verified that the surface roughness and surface roughness crushing effect on the particle/surface interface shear behavior.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.30 no.9
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• pp.41-55
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• 2014

In performing seismic analysis of tunnels, it is a common practice to ignore the rock joints and to assume that the rock mass surrounding the tunnel is continuous. The applicability of this assumption has not yet been validated in detail. This study performs a series of pseudo-static discrete element analyses to evaluate the effect of rock joint on the seismic response of tunnels. The parameters considered are joint intersection location, joint spacing, joint stiffness, joint dip, and interface stiffness. The results show that the joint stiffness has the most critical influence on the tunnel response. The tunnel response increases with the spacing, resulting in localized concentration of moment and shear stress. The response of the tunnel is the lowest for joints dipping at $45^{\circ}$. This is because large shear stresses result in rotation of the principal planes by $45^{\circ}$. In summary, the weathered and smooth, vertical or horizontal, and widely spaced joint set will significantly increase the tunnel response under seismic loading. The tunnel linings are shown to be most susceptible to damage due to induced shear stress, and therefore should be checked in the seismic design.

• Tunnel and Underground Space
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• v.29 no.6
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• pp.456-467
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• 2019

In this study, the discrete element method was used to simulate the excavation of spoke-type shield TBM. The horizontal stress coefficient was used for the ground to simulate the increase of the horizontal stress according to the depth, and the driving conditions were set based on the torque generated from the cutterhead of the TBM to excavate within the operating range. That is, when the value of the torque generated at the cutterhead exceeds the given operating condition, the speed of excavation is constantly reduced, and conversely, the method of increasing the speed of excavation is considered. The change speed of the excavation was given the minimum change requirement in consideration of the driver's review time, and the change was possible according to the excavation conditions. In order to use these conditions, the user-subroutine was considered separately, and the results show that the DEM model were able to analyze the excavation within the considered operating range.

• Korean Journal of Construction Engineering and Management
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• v.14 no.2
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• pp.96-107
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• 2013

Tower crane hoisting plan is one of the key element for the success of entire High-Rise Building construction. Hoisting time is the basic factor to appropriate hoisting plan which need to the hoisting load estimate and tower crane selection. With this reason, accurate hoisting time is needed to the proper hoisting plan. The current hoisting time estimation for High-Rise Building focus on the hoisting cycle time estimation with historical data. However, this method underestimated the external influences like environmental factor. Thus, this paper aims to develop the hoisting time estimation model with discrete event simulation which include the wind influences with certain height. According to the simulation result, the hoisting time which applied wind influence is increasing with height growth. Because of the high speed wind, the upper area of building has more operation delay time than the mechanical operation time. Seoul, the research area, has the most fastest wind speed on April and the least on October. Due to these differences of wind speed, the hoisting time is estimated with significant differences between April and October. This hosting time estimation model would be used for estimating the influence of wind. Moreover, this could apply to make the realistic hoisting plan.

• The Journal of Engineering Geology
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• v.32 no.3
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• pp.351-361
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• 2022

Numerical analysis performed to predict the behavior of Ipseok-dae columnar joints in Mudeungsan National Park to understand their stability and movement. The numerical analysis technique, 3DEC, is based on the discrete element method that can analysis discontinuities. The analysis used data for material properties derived from laboratory tests, which found that average density was 2.68 kN/m³, average normal stiffness was 3.15 GPa/m, average shear stiffness was 1.00 GPa/m, average cohesion was 0.51 MPa, and the average friction angle was 33°. The Ipseok-dae columnar joints were modeled on the basis of the field survey data for 15 joints located between the observation platform and the hiking trail. The numerical analysis assessed the behavior of each columnar joint by interpreting the displacement of the edges of its upper and lower surfaces. The greatest maximum displacement was found in columnar joint No. 6, and the greatest minimum displacement was found in joint No. 11. Analyzing the movements of five discontinuities in joint No. 11 indicated that the maximum displacement occurred at the 2nd level. The other levels were ordered 5th, 4th, 1st, and 3rd in terms of subsequent greatest displacements. Considering the total displacement in the 15 studied joints, the Ipseok-dae columnar joints are judged to be stable. However, considering the cultural and historical value of Mudeungsan National Park, it is regarded that the currents slope stability should be maintained by monitoring the individual rock blocks of the joints.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.37 no.11
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• pp.23-36
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• 2021

In this paper, the effect of shear rate on internal friction angle and unconfined compressive strength of non-cemented and cemented sand was investigated. A dry Jumunjin sand was prepared at loose, medium, and dense conditions with a relative density of 40, 60 and 80%. Then, series of direct shear tests were conducted at shear rates of 0.32, 0.64, and 2.54 mm/min. In addition, a cemented sand with cement ratio of 8% and 12% was compacted into a cylindrical specimen with 50 mm in diameter and 100 mm in height. Unconfined compression tests on the cemented sand were performed with various shear rates such as 0.1, 0.5, 1, 5 and 10%/min. Regardless of a degree of cementation, the unconfined compressive strength of the cemented sand and the angle of internal friction of the non-cemented sand tended to increase as the shear rate increased. For the non-cemented sand, the angle of internal friction increased by 4° at maximum as the shear rate increased. The unconfined compressive strength of the cemented sand also increased as the shear rate increased. However, its increasing pattern declined after the standard shear rate (1 mm/min). A discrete element method was also used to analyze the crack initiation and its development for the cemented sand with shear rate. Numerical results of unconfined compressive strength and failure pattern were similar to the experimental results.

• Tunnel and Underground Space
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• v.33 no.1
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• pp.57-69
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• 2023

In this study, we simulated induced seismicity in the Groningen natural gas reservoir using 2D hydro-mechanical coupled discrete element modelling (DEM). The code used is PFC2D (Particle Flow Code 2D), a commercial software developed by Itasca, and in order to apply to this study we further developed 1)initialization of inhomogeneous reservoir pressure distribution, 2)a non-linear pressure-time history boundary condition, 3)local stress field monitoring logic. We generated a 2D reservoir model with a size of 40 × 50 km² and a complex fault system, and simulated years of pressure depletion with a time range between 1960 and 2020. We simulated fault system failure induced by pressure depletion and reproduced the spatiotemporal distribution of induced seismicity and assessed its failure mechanism. Also, we estimated the ground subsidence distribution and confirmed its similarity to the field measurements in the Groningen region. Through this study, we confirm the feasibility of the presented 2D hydro-mechanical coupled DEM in simulating the deformation of a complex fault system by hydro-mechanical coupled processes.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.55 no.1
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• pp.339-352
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• 2023

Prediction of the time-related traits of pebble flow inside pebble-bed HTGRs is of great significance for reactor operation and design. In this work, an image-driven approach with the aid of a convolutional neural network (CNN) is proposed to predict the remaining time of initially loaded pebbles and the time interval of paired flow images of the pebble bed. Two types of strategies are put forward: one is adding FC layers to the classic classification CNN models and using regression training, and the other is CNN-based deep expectation (DEX) by regarding the time prediction as a deep classification task followed by softmax expected value refinements. The current dataset is obtained from the discrete element method (DEM) simulations. Results show that the CNN-aided models generally make satisfactory predictions on the remaining time with the determination coefficient larger than 0.99. Among these models, the VGG19+DEX performs the best and its CumScore (proportion of test set with prediction error within 0.5s) can reach 0.939. Besides, the remaining time of additional test sets and new cases can also be well predicted, indicating good generalization ability of the model. In the task of predicting the time interval of image pairs, the VGG19+DEX model has also generated satisfactory results. Particularly, the trained model, with promising generalization ability, has demonstrated great potential in accurately and instantaneously predicting the traits of interest, without the need for additional computational intensive DEM simulations. Nevertheless, the issues of data diversity and model optimization need to be improved to achieve the full potential of the CNN-aided prediction tool.

• Journal of the Korean GEO-environmental Society
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• v.25 no.4
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• pp.13-20
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• 2024

In this paper, a parallel analysis algorithm for Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics (SPH), one of the numerical methods for fluidic materials, is introduced. SPH, which is a meshless method, can represent the behavior of a continuum using a particle-based approach, but it demands substantial computational resources. Therefore, parallel analysis algorithms are essential for SPH simulations. The domain decomposition algorithm, which divides the computational domain into partitions to be independently analyzed, is the most representative method among parallel analysis algorithms. In Discrete Element Method (DEM) and Molecular Dynamics (MD), the Cartesian coordinate-based domain decomposition method is popularly used because it offers advantages in quickly and conveniently accessing particle positions. However, in SPH, it is important to share particle information among partitioned domains because SPH particles are defined based on information from nearby particles within the smoothing length. Additionally, maintaining CPU load balance is crucial. In this study, a highly parallel efficient algorithm is proposed to dynamically minimize the size of orthogonal domain partitions to prevent excess CPU utilization. The efficiency of the proposed method was validated through numerical analysis models. The parallel efficiency of the proposed method is evaluated for up to 30 CPUs for fluidic models, achieving 90% parallel efficiency for up to 28 physical cores.