• Tunnel and Underground Space
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• v.33 no.6
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• pp.435-444
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• 2023

In the licensing application for the deep geological disposal system of high-level radioactive waste in Finland, the disposal tunnel backfilling has been changed from the block/pellet (for the construction) to the granular type (for the operation). Accordingly, for establishing the design concept for backfilling, it is necessary to examine applicability to the domestic facility through analyzing problems of the existing method and improvements in the alternative design. In this paper, we first reviewed the principal studies conducted for changing the backfill method in the licensing process of the Finnish facility, and identified the expected problems in applying the block/pellet backfill method. In addition, we derived the evaluation factors to be considered in terms of technical and operational aspects for the backfilling solution, and then conducted a comparative analysis for two types of backfill methods. This analysis confirmed the overall superiority of the design change. It is expected that these results could be utilized as the technical basis for deriving the optimum design plan in development process of the Korean-specific deep disposal facility. However, applicability should be reviewed in advance based on the latest technical data for the detailed evaluation factors that must be considered for selecting the backfilling method.

• Korean Journal of Environment and Ecology
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• v.37 no.1
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• pp.1-12
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• 2023

We analyzed the distribution area of debris slopes in Mudeungsan (Mt. Mudeung) National Park by comparing aerial photos of the past (1966) and the present (2017) and identified the vegetation characteristics that affect the change in the area of the debris slopes by investigating the vegetation status of the debris slopes and the surrounding areas. The area of debris slopes in Mt. Mudeung appears to have been reduced to a quarter of what it used to be. Debris slopes here have decreased at an average rate of 2.3 ha/yr over 51 years by vegetation covers. Notably, most of the small-area debris slopes in the low-inclination slopes disappeared due to active vegetation coverage. However, there are still west-facing, south-west-facing, south-facing, and large-area debris slopes remaining because the sun's radiant heat rapidly raises the surface temperature of rock blocks and dries moisture, making tree growth unfavorable. Because of these locational characteristics, the small-scale vegetation in the middle of Deoksan Stony Slope, which is the broadest area, showed distinct characteristics from the adjacent forest areas. Sunny places and tree species with excellent drying resistance were observed frequently in Deoksan Stony Slope. However, tree species with high hygropreference that grow well in valleys with good soil conditions also prevailed. In some of these places, the soil layer has been well developed due to the accumulation of fine materials and organic matter between the crevices of the rock blocks, which is likely to have provided favorable conditions for such tree species to settle and grow. At the top of Mt. Mudeung, on the other hand, the forest covered the debris slopes, where Mongolian oaks (Quercus mongolica) and royal azaleas (Rhododendron schlippenbachii), which typically grow in the highlands, prevailed. This area was considered favorable for the development of vegetation for the highlands because the density of rock blocks was lower than in Deoksan Stony Slope, and the soil was exposed. Moreover, ash trees (Fraxinus rhynchophylla) and Korean maple trees (Acer pseudosieboldianum) that commonly appear in the valley areas were dominant here. It is probably due to the increased moisture content in the soil, which resulted from creating a depressive landform with a concave shape that is easy to collect rainwater as rock blocks in some areas fell and piled up in the lower region. In conclusion, the area, density of the rock blocks, and distribution pattern of rock block slopes would have affected the vegetation development and species composition in the debris slope landform.

• Journal of Korean Tunnelling and Underground Space Association
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• v.9 no.4
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• pp.403-413
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• 2007

As rock bolts become one of the main support systems in tunnels and underground structures, the integrity of the rock bolts affects the safety of these types of structures. The purpose of this study is the evaluation of rock bolt integrity using Fourier and wavelet transforms of the guided ultrasonic waves. After five rock bolt specimens with various defect ratios are embedded into a large scale concrete block, guided waves are generated by a PZT (lead zirconate titanate) element and measured by an acoustic emission (AE) sensor. The captured signals are analyzed in the frequency domain using the Fourier transform, and in the time-frequency domain using the wavelet transform based on a Gabor wavelet. The spectrum obtained from the Fourier transform shows that a portion of high frequency contents increases with increase in the defect ratio. Peak values in the time-frequency domain represent the interval of travel time of each echo. The energy velocities of the guided waves increase with the defect ratio. This study shows that the spectrum ratio and the energy velocity may be indicators fur the evaluation of rock bolt integrity.

• Tunnel and Underground Space
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• v.22 no.5
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• pp.346-353
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• 2012

Multi-specimen uniaxial compression test has been carried out in order to find the method to determine the five independent elastic constants from a single standard specimen of a transversely isotropic rock. Total 35 specimens of 7 different angles from a large block of rhyolite presenting the flow structure obviously are used in tests. This second report is to focus on the statistical evaluation of measured strains and analyzed elastic constants. And the determination of their true or near-true values is discussed. As the result of RSD analysis, it turns out that the reliability of measured strains is sufficiently obtained and Saint-Venant approximation is well applicable except 15 degree angled specimen in tests. RSD is decreasing on the increase of the angle of anisotropy. This tendency may be caused not only by the decreasing of the deviation of measured strains, but also by the better applicability of Saint-Venant approximation on the increase of angle. It can be concluded that the analyzed values are considered the near-true ones of five independent constants on the high reliability. But the variation of the apparent Young's modulus expected by these values is not proved to match the measured tendency. It is inferred that the factor to decrease the apparent Young's modulus and/or to increase the shear strain, is present in the test or in the nature of the anisotropy in consideration of this inconsistency.

• Tunnel and Underground Space
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• v.28 no.6
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• pp.635-650
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• 2018

Many people have been recognized that the Korean Peninsula is no longer safe area from the earthquake by the recent earthquakes occurred in the country. The earthquakes that occurred at Pohang and Gyeongju appeared differently from them considered in the seismic design and researches on the seismic design method have been also conducted by many researchers. Studies on seismic loads are mainly focused on existing superstructures, and research involving them has been actively carried out in reality. However, paper regarding structural stability of reinforcement from seismic load such as soil-nails, rock-bolts, ground anchors which were constructed to ensure stability of serviced structure have been published rarely. In this study, ground anchor been effected by static load and seismic load which is settled in the weathered rock is analyzed. Results for static load are obtained from field test and seismic load is from numerical analysis. In this study, the behavioral characteristics of the ground anchor were analyzed by numerical analysis in case of seismic loading based on the result of the in-situ tensile test of the ground anchor settled weathered rock. As a result, settlement of concrete block due to application of tension force for ground anchor occurred as well as following loss of axial force for ground anchor. Also, as bond length and period of seismic load are longer, increasement of displacement is greater.

• Tunnel and Underground Space
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• v.31 no.5
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• pp.309-332
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• 2021

Natural barrier systems surrounding the geological repository for the high-level radioactive waste should guarantee the hydraulic performance for preventing or delaying the leakage of radionuclide. In the case of the behavior of a crystalline rock, the hydraulic performance tends to be decided by the existence of discontinuities, so the coupled hydro-mechanical(HM) processes on the discontinuities should be characterized. The discontinuum modelling can describe the complicated behavior of discontinuities including creation, propagation, deformation and slip, so it is appropriate to model the behavior of a crystalline rock. This paper investigated the coupled HM processes in discontinuum modelling such as UDEC, 3DEC, PFC, DDA, FRACOD and TOUGH-UDEC. Block-based discontinuum methods tend to describe the HM processes based on the fluid flow through the discontinuities, and some methods are combined with another numerical tool specialized in hydraulic analysis. Particle-based discontinuum modelling describes the overall HM processes based on the fluid flow among the particles. The discontinuum methods that are currently available have limitations: exclusive simulations for two-dimension, low hydraulic simulation efficiency, fracture-dominated fluid flow and simplified hydraulic analysis, so it could be improper to the modelling the geological repository. Based on the concepts of various discontinuum modelling compiled in this paper, the advanced numerical tools for describing the accurate coupled HM processes of the deep geological repository should be developed.

• Proceedings of the Korean Geotechical Society Conference
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• 1998.05a
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• pp.35-81
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• 1998

Distinct Element Method(DEM) has a great advantage to model the discontinuous behaviour of jointed rock masses such as rotation, sliding, and separation of rock blocks. Geometrical data of joints by a field monitoring is not enough to model the jointed rock mass though the results of DE analysis for the jointed rock mass is most sensitive to the distributional properties of joints. Also, it is important to use a properly joint law in evaluating the stability of a jointed rock mass because the joint is considered as the contact between blocks in DEM. In this study, a stochastic modelling technique is developed and the dilatant rock joint is numerically modelled in order to consider th geometrical and mechanical properties of joints in DE analysis. The stochastic modelling technique provides a assemblage of rock blocks by reproducing the joint distribution from insufficient joint data. Numerical Modelling of joint dilatancy in a edge-edge contact of DEM enable to consider not only mechanical properties but also various boundary conditions of joint. Preprocess Procedure for a stochastic DE model is composed of a statistical process of raw data of joints, a joint generation, and a block boundary generation. This stochastic DE model is used to analyze the effect of deviations of geometrical joint parameters on .the behaviour of jointed rock masses. This modelling method may be one tool for the consistency of DE analysis because it keeps the objectivity of the numerical model. In the joint constitutive law with a dilatancy, the normal and shear behaviour of a joint are fully coupled due to dilatation. It is easy to quantify the input Parameters used in the joint law from laboratory tests. The boundary effect on the behaviour of a joint is verified from shear tests under CNL and CNS using the numerical model of a single joint. The numerical model developed is applied to jointed rock masses to evaluate the effect of joint dilation on tunnel stability.

• The Journal of Engineering Geology
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• v.10 no.1
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• pp.13-25
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• 2000

A three-dimensional discrete fracture network model based on probabilistic characteristics of fracture geometry and transmissivity was designed to calculate the conductivity tensor and to estimate theanisotropy of conductivity. The conductivities, $K_p$, obtained from the numerical simulation of single-holepacker test corresponded well to those from the field tests. From this, it can be concluded that thefracture network model designed in this study can represent hydraulic characteristics of in-situ fractured rock mass. Block-scale conductivities, $K_b$, estimated from the modelling of steady-state flow through the REV-scale block were ranged between the arithmetic mean and harmonic mean of theconductivity estimates from packer tests. The conductivity along north-south direction was 1.4 timesgreater than that along the east-west direction. It was concluded that the anisotropy of conductivitywas insignificant. It was also found that there was a little correlation between $K_b$ and $K_p$. This would be to that the conductivities from the packer test simulation was strongly dependent on thetransmissivity and the number of fractures within the packer test intervals.

• Proceedings of the Korean Geotechical Society Conference
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• 2010.09a
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• pp.580-586
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• 2010

The purpose of this study is to analyze the behavior of the concrete pile under the horizontal loads by the model tests in laboratory. The rock ground was modeled by the concrete of about 30MPa, and a model pile was made of some mortar with the capacity of 24MPa. The diameter(D) and length(L) of a model pile was each 1200mm and 1800mm. The embedment depth into the concrete block was varied with 1.0D, 1.5D, and 2.0D in the model tests. The results of model tests showed that the lateral resistance of a pile with the embedment depth of 2.0D was more large than other cases, and the lateral displacement of yielding was similar.

• Economic and Environmental Geology
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• v.28 no.5
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• pp.493-501
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• 1995

Carboniferous and Cretaceous rock samples were collected from 3 and 12 sites respectively in the vicinity of the Okcheon Zone. Mean directions of characteristic component magnetizations from Carboniferous rocks along the Honam Shearzone reveal that the Okcheon zone was considerably rotated and deformed during Triassic. The amount of rotations were clockwisely $80.3^{\circ}$ in Mungyeong and $42.4^{\circ}$ in Hwasun areas. Mean directions of characteristic component magnetizations obtained from Cretaceous Yeongdong and Neungju Basin were identical to those from the Gyeongsang Basin in the Yeongnam Block indicating no relative motion between them since Cretaceous. Cretaceous paleopole position from 4 locations, $204.9^{\circ}E$ in longitude and $65.1^{\circ}N $ in latitude.