• 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.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society for Rock Mechanics Conference
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• 2011.09a
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• pp.3-21
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• 2011

Laboratory experiments and numerical simulations using Particle Flow Code (PFC2D) were performed to study the effects of joint separation and joint overlapping on the full failure behavior of rock bridges under direct shear loading. Through numerical direct shear tests, the failure process is visually observed and the failure patterns are achieved with reasonable conformity with the experimental results. The simulation results clearly showed that cracks developed during the test were predominantly tension cracks. It was deduced that the failure pattern was mostly influenced by both of the joint separation and joint overlapping while the shear strength is closely related to the failure pattern and its failure mechanism. The studies revealed that shear strength of rock bridges are increased with increasing in the joint separation. Also, it was observed that for a fixed cross sectional area of rock bridges, shear strength of overlapped joints are less than the shear strength of non-overlapped joints.

• Tunnel and Underground Space
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• v.14 no.1
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• pp.54-68
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• 2004

In this study, scaled model tests were performed on blasting demolition of reinforced concrete structures and the experimental results were analyzed in comparison with the results of numerical analysis. The tests were designed to induce a progressive collapse, and physical properties of the scaled model were determined using scale factors obtained ken dimension analysis. The scaled model structure was made of a mixture of plaster, sand and water at the ratio determined to yield the best scaled-down strength. Lead wire was used as a substitute for reinforcing bars. The scaled length was at the ratio of 1/10. Selecting the material and scaled factors was aimed at obtaining appropriately scaled-down strength. PFC2D (Particle Flow Code 2-Dimension) employing DEM (Distinct Element Method) was used for the numerical analysis. Blasting demolition of scaled 3-D plain concrete laymen structure was filmed and compared to results of numerical simulation. Despite the limits of 2-D simulation the resulting demolition behaviors were similar to each other. Based on the above experimental results in combination with bending test results of RC beam, numerical analysis was carried out to determine the blasting sequence and delay times. Scaled model test of RC structure resulted in remarkably similar collapse with the numerical results up to 900㎳ (mili-second).

• Proceedings of the Korean Geotechical Society Conference
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• 2009.09a
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• pp.591-604
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• 2009

This paper presents some important issues in modeling rock behaviour around an underground opening at depth which characterized as stress-induced fractural failure of rock. Unlike other conventional modeling approaches, stress-induced rock failure is highly complex process due to its own heterogeneous and discrete natures. Because of this complexity, many researchers has been struggled to mimic such processes as close as possible to reality with various approaches in both analytical, and numerical approaches for past few decades. Such approaches which are based on continuum mechanics, analytical fracture mechanics, and DEM(Discrete Element Method) were explored in this paper, and fundamental shortcomings for each approaches were illustrated here. In addition, DEM approach using $PFC^{2D}$(Particle Flow Code) was also implemented and illuminated in this paper and discuss the improvement and considerations for the future research.

• Tunnel and Underground Space
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• v.23 no.1
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• pp.54-65
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• 2013

The LCM (Linear Cutting Machine) test is one of the most powerful and reliable methods for designing the disc cutter and for predicting the TBM (Tunnel Boring Machine) performance. It has an advantage to predict the actual load on disc cutter from the laboratory test on the real-size large rock samples, however, it also has a disadvantage to transport and/or prepare the large rock samples and to need an extra cost for experiment. In order to overcome this problem, lots of numerical studies have been performed. In this study, the PFC3D (Particle Flow Code in 3 Dimension) has been adopted for numerical analysis on optimum cutter spacing and failure aspects of Busan Tuff. The optimum cutting condition with s/p ratio of 16 and minimum specific energy of $14MJ/m^3$ was derived from numerical analyses. The cutter spacing for Busan Tuff had the good agreements with those of LCM test and numerical analysis by finite element method.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.22 no.1
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• pp.97-108
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• 2020

The time-consuming and less objectivity are the main problems of conventional micromechanical parameters calibration method of Particle Flow Code simulations. Thus this study aims to address these two limitation of the conventional "trial-and-error" method. A new calibration method for the linear parallel bond model (CM-LPBM) is proposed. First, numerical simulations are conducted based on the results of the uniaxial compression tests on limestone. The macroscopic response of the numerical model agrees well with the results of the uniaxial compression tests. To reduce the number of the independent micromechanical parameters, numerical simulations are then carried out. Based on the results of the orthogonal experiments and the multi-factor variance analysis, main micromechanical parameters affecting the macro parameters of rocks are proposed. The macro-micro parameter functions are ultimately established using multiple linear regression, and the iteration correction formulas of the micromechanical parameters are obtained. To further verify the validity of the proposed method, a case study is carried out. The error between the macro mechanical response and the numerical results is less than 5%. Hence the calibration method, i.e., the CM-LPBM, is reliable for obtaining the micromechanical parameters quickly and accurately, providing reference for the calibration of micromechanical parameters.

• Proceedings of the Korean Geotechical Society Conference
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• 2005.03a
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• pp.751-758
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• 2005

In this study, the Discrete Element Code was applied to the analysis of falling rock blocks. The simulation was performed using the PFC2D computer code. Falling rock blocks should be applied as additional force to each others. The force affect the motion of falling rock blocks. This was used to find out the behavior of each blocks. This study revealed that the DEM can successfully capture the behavior of falling rock blocks.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.31 no.5
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• pp.461-476
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• 2022

Research studies on the scale effect on triaxial strength of intact rocks are scarce, being more common those in uniaxial strength. In this paper, the authors present and briefly interpret the peak and residual strength trends on a series of triaxial tests on different size specimens (30 mm to 84 mm diameter) of an intact granitic rock at confinements ranging from 0 to 15 MPa. Peak strength tends to grow from smaller to standard-size samples (54 mm) and then diminishes for larger values at low confinement. However, a slight change in strength is observed at higher confinements. Residual strength is observed to be much less size-dependent. Additionally, this study introduces preliminary modelling approaches of these laboratory observations with the help of three-dimensional particle flow code (PFC3D) simulations based on bonded particle models (BPM). Based on previous studies, two modelling approaches have been followed. In the first one, the maximum and minimum particle diameter (D_max and D_min) are kept constant irrespective of the sample size, whereas in the second one, the resolution (number of particles within the sample or ϕ_v) was kept constant. Neither of these approaches properly represent the observations in actual laboratory tests, even if both of them show some interesting capabilities reported in this document. Eventually, some suggestions are provided to proceed towards improving modelling approaches to represent observed scale effects.

• 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.

• Proceedings of the Korean Geotechical Society Conference
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• 2010.03a
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• pp.314-323
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• 2010

Recently, granular soils having a large particle size are frequently used as a filling material in the construction of foundation, harbor, dam, and so on. The shear behavior of this granular soil plays a key role in the stability of structures. For example, soil particle crushing occurring at the interface between structure and soil and/or within soil mass can cause the disturbance of ground characteristics and consequently induce an issues in respect of stability of structures. In order to investigate the shear behavior according to an existence and nonexistence of particle crushing, numerical analyses were conducted by using the DEM(Discrete Element Method)-based software program PFC(Particle Flow Code). Using the crushing model and non-crushing model which were created in this study, numerical analyses of ring shear test were conducted and their results were analyzed and compared. In general, landslide and slope stability are accompanied by a large displacement and consequently not only a peak strength but also a residual strength are very important in the analysis of landslide and slope stability. However the direct shear test which has been commonly used in the determination of shear strength parameters has a limitation on displacement therefore the residual strength parameters can not be obtained. The characteristics of residual shear behavior were investigated through the numerical analyses in this study.