• Tunnel and Underground Space
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• v.23 no.5
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• pp.413-427
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• 2013

Thin Spray-on Liners(TSLs) based on polymer materials have been considered as an alternative to shotcrete and wire mesh in relatively fair rock conditions, and used in mines since 1990s. Nevertheless, Few experimental studies on their mechanical properties necessary for the evaluation of their bearing capacities as a support member have been carried out. In this study, tensile and bond strengths of two kinds of TSLs with different material compositions were measured at the age of 7 days. In addition, two kinds of bending tests proposed by EFNARC (2008) to simulate representative failure mechanisms of TSLs were carried out on the same materials and curing age as in tension and pull-out tests. From the tests, tensile strength of a TSL is shown to increase as its content of polymer is higher. In contrast, its bond strength seems to be in inverse proportion to its polymer content. Especially, the TSL material in which a cementitious component is included with relatively smaller polymer content shows a faster hardening characteristic which results in higher resistance to de-bonding between a TSL and a substrate. As a result, it is shown that the performance of TSLs might be dependent upon its corresponding polymer content.

• Tunnel and Underground Space
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• v.23 no.5
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• pp.383-391
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• 2013

A number of true triaxial tests on rock samples have been conducted since the late 1960 and their results strongly suggest that the intermediate principal stress has a considerable effect on rock strength. Based on these experimental evidence, various 3-D rock failure criteria accounting for the effect of the intermediate principal stress have been proposed. Most of the 3-D failure criteria, however, are focused on the phenomenological description of the rock strength from the true triaxial tests, so that the associated strength parameters have little physical meaning. In order to confirm the likelihood that the intermediate principal stress dependency of rock strength is related to the presence of weak planes and their distribution to the preferred orientation, true triaxial tests are simulated with the transversely isotropic rock model. The conventional Mohr-Coulomb criterion is extended to its anisotropic version by incorporating the concept of microstructure tensor. With the anisotropic Mohr-Coulomb criterion, the critical plane approach is applied to calculate the strength of the transversely isotropic rock model and the orientation of the fracture plane. This investigation hints that the spatial distribution of microstructural planes with respect to the principal stress triad is closely related to the intermediate principal stress dependency of rock strength.

• Tunnel and Underground Space
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• v.23 no.5
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• pp.372-382
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• 2013

Thermal-hydro-mechanical (THM) modeling is a critical R&D issue in the performance and safety assessment of a high-level waste repository. With an $\ddot{A}$sp$\ddot{o}$ prototype repository, its thermal behavior was analyzed and then compared with in-situ experimental data for its validation. A model simulation was used to calculate the temperature distributions in the deposition holes, deposition tunnel, and surrounding host rock. A comparison of the simulation results with the experimental data was made for deposition hole DH-6, which showed that there was a temperature difference of $2{\sim}5^{\circ}C$ depending on the location of the measuring points, but there was a similar trend in the evolution curves of temperature as a function of time. It was expected that the coupled modeling of the thermal behavior with the hydro-mechanical behavior in the buffer and backfill of the $\ddot{A}$sp$\ddot{o}$ prototype repository would give a better agreement between the experimental and model calculation results.

• Tunnel and Underground Space
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• v.23 no.5
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• pp.353-361
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• 2013

Previous studies for analyzing optimal haulage routes of dump trucks in open pit mines mostly used raster data. However, the raster data has several problems in performing optimal route analyses: (1) the jagged appearance of haulage roads according the cell resolution often causes overestimation of the travel cost; (2) it difficult to trace the topological relationships among haulage roads. These problems can be eliminated by using vector network data, however a new method is required to reflect the performance characteristics of a dump truck according to terrain gradient changes. This study presents a new method to create vector network data with the consideration of terrain gradient for analyzing optimal haulage routes of dump trucks in open pit mines. It consists of four procedures: (a) creating digital elevation models, (b) digitizing haulage road networks, (c) calculating the terrain gradient of haulage roads, and (d) calculating the average speed and travel time of a dump truck along haulage roads. A simple case study at the Roto South pit in the Pasir open pit coal mine, Indonesia is also presented to provide proof that the proposed method is easily compatible to ArcGIS Network Analyst software and is effective in finding optimal haulage routes of dump trucks with considering terrain gradient in open pit mines.

• Tunnel and Underground Space
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• v.23 no.4
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• pp.308-318
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• 2013

Thermal stratification in heat stores is essential to improve the efficiency of energy storage systems and deliver more useful energy on demand. It is generally well known that the degree of thermal stratification in heat stores varies depending on the aspect ratio (the height-to-width ratio) and size of the stores. The present study aims to investigate the effect of the aspect ratio and storage volume of rock caverns for storing hot water on thermal stratification in the caverns and heat loss to the surroundings. Heat transfer simulations using a computational fluid dynamics code, FLUENT were performed at different aspect ratios and storage volumes of rock caverns. The variation of thermal stratification with respect to time was examined using an index to quantify the degree of stratification, and the heat loss to the surroundings was evaluated. The results of the numerical simulations demonstrated that the thermal stratification in rock caverns was improved by increasing the aspect ratio, but this effect was not remarkable beyond an aspect ratio of 3-4. When the storage volume of rock caverns was large, a higher thermal stratification was maintained for a relatively longer time compared to caverns with a small storage volume, but the difference in thermal stratification between the two cases tended to decrease as the aspect ratio became larger. In addition, the numerical results showed that the heat loss to the surrounding rock tended to increase with an increase in aspect ratio because the surface area of rock caverns increased as the aspect ratio became larger. The total heat loss from multiple small caverns with a reduced storage volume per cavern was larger compared to a single cavern with the same total storage volume as that of the multiple caverns.

• Tunnel and Underground Space
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• v.23 no.4
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• pp.297-307
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• 2013

In this study, the thermal analysis is carried out for a result of borehole heater test using ABAQUS ver 6.10 based on finite element analysis code. Thermal-mechanical rock properties as determined by laboratory tests before the in situ test and characteristics of the atmosphere at the test section are used as the initial condition. When comparing the results of the in situ test and thermal analysis, the temperature of C3 observation hole that is 0.9 m away from the heater showed very similar patterns and figures (about $1.3^{\circ}C$ difference). But the results of the A and B observation hole showed a significant difference around $15^{\circ}C{\sim}20^{\circ}C$. To find the reason for these results, the over-coring is carried out for the A1 and B1 observation holes. As a result of checking the excavated rock core with the naked eye, there is no problem on the number and position of the sensor as the test plan. However the state of cement injection in the observation hole is poor.

• Tunnel and Underground Space
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• v.23 no.4
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• pp.288-296
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• 2013

In this study, a total of 13 mines were finally selected as study subjects and field measurements were conducted. Thereafter, calculations of thermodynamic natural ventilation were attempted using spread sheets and solutions for natural ventilation of mine types with multiple vertical shafts were obtained. Based on the results, natural ventilation of each mine was quantified. In addition, changes in natural ventilation energy (NVE) and natural ventilation pressure (NVP) were estimated assuming mine deepening and the resultant values were applied to mine conditions to observe changes in flow rates. Natural ventilation pressure in domestic mines is generally calculated to be in a range of 5 Pa~300 Pa. Although NVP increases as the depth increases, resistance also increases. Therefore, as the depth increases, flow rates show a tendency of converging on a certain value because of the relationship between NVP and mine resistance. Natural ventilation using shafts with depth differences is effective up to depths of 200~300 m. However, flow rate change rates resulting from NVP are small at depths deeper than approximately 200~300 m. Therefore, if a mine is deepened over 300 m, NVP will become insufficient and thus additional pressure obtained through mechanical ventilation will be necessary.

• Tunnel and Underground Space
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• v.27 no.1
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• pp.50-57
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• 2017

In this study, the experiment for determining shock loss at the branch is conducted for the design of network double-deck road tunnel ventilation. The shock loss coefficient that determines the quantity of shock loss has been considered only regarding the constant aspect ratio of circular or rectangular section. However the suggestion of shock loss coefficient is needed since the aspect ratio of double-deck road tunnel for small vehicle is considered around 1:3 with the low height in Korea. The experiment model was made with the scale of around 1:23 applying Reynolds similarity law, so that the shock loss coefficient on the branch of the large aspect ratio was measured. The result of the study showed that shock loss coefficients of both split branch and straight branch were measured two to three times higher than those calculated from the theoretical equation or design values of previous studies. Therefore the study resulted the effect of large aspect ratio on shock loss coefficient was huge, and it is expected that precise design value can be suggested for the design of network double-deck tunnel ventilation.

• Tunnel and Underground Space
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• v.27 no.1
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• pp.12-25
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• 2017

In local underground mines heavily depending on the natural ventilation, ducted fan auxiliary ventilation system is strongly recommended instead of the total mine ventilation system requiring large capital and operating costs. Optimizing the installation of ducted fans in series in long large-opening mines is required to assure the economy and efficiency of the ventilation system. The two most critical design parameters for optimization are the wall separation distance and gap length between adjoining ducts. This study aims at deriving the optimal values for those two parameters concerning the economic and environmental aspects through the extensive CFD analysis, which minimizes pressure loss, leakage and entrainment of the contaminated air in the gap space. The ranges of the wall separation distance and gap length for study are selected by taking into consideration the existing recommendations and guidelines. The ultimate goal is to optimize the auxiliary ventilation system using ducted fans in series to provide a reliable and efficient solution to maintain clean and safe workplace environment in local long underground mines.

• Tunnel and Underground Space
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• v.27 no.1
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• pp.26-38
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• 2017

In this study, bedding rock permeability was measured using Berea sandstones with three different beddings. The fracture permeability was also measured using tight sandstone with two different fracture regimes considering in-situ stress conditions. The Berea sandstone with vertical, horizontal and non-bedding was used to analyze evolution of permeability upon in-situ stress conditions. In order to describe applied effective stress around rock in underground, the triaxial pressure cell & hydrostatic pressure cell was designed and permeability experiments were performed with controlled axial and confining pressures. The measurement of permeability was conducted by increasing and decreasing effective stress. The permeability of non-bedding rock sample is the most sensitive to applied stress conditions and fracture permeability of tight sandstone increases with fracture treatment with proppant.