• Tunnel and Underground Space
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• v.30 no.2
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• pp.164-179
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• 2020

Applying the limit state design method to geotechnical structures, accuracy and reliability of its design are mainly affected by parameters for geotechnical site characteristics, such as unit weight, Poisson's ratio, deformation modulus, cohesion and frictional angle. When the structures are located in weathered ground, especially, cohesion and frictional angle of ground are closely related with decision of parameters for structures' load and ground's resistance. Therefore, the accurate determination of these parameters, which are commonly obtained from field measurement, such as borehole shear test, are essential for optimum design of geotechnical structures. The 38 case studies, in this study, have been analyzed for understanding the importance of these parameters in designing the ground structures. From these results, importance of field measurement was also ascertained. With these evaluations, an apparatus for determining the strength characteristics, which are fundamental in limit state design (LSD) method, have been newly developed. This apparatus has an improved function as following the ASTM suggestion. Through the field application of this apparatus, the strong point of minimizing the possibility of error occurrence during the measurement has been verified and authors summarized that the essential parameters for LSD can be qualitatively obtained by this apparatus for determination of strength characteristics of weathered ground.

• Tunnel and Underground Space
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• v.26 no.3
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• pp.220-234
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• 2016

Sprayable waterproofing membrane has been considered as a substitute for a sheet waterproofing membrane in a variety of underground excavation works. However, fundamental properties of sprayble waterproofing membrane have not been fully given yet. In this study, a new two-component sprayable waterproofing membrane prototype was developed. In addition, its physico-mechanical properties were measured and compared with those of two kinds of thin spray-on liners where constitutive materials and construction methods are very close to each other. From direct tensile tests, the sprayable waterproofing membrane with elongations at break between 250% and 300% showed much higher ductility than TSLs. However, the sprayable waterproofing membrane had a limitation as a support member since its bond strength and loading capacity was lower than those of TSLs. From three-dimensional X-ray CT images, the porosity of the sprayable waterproofing membrane was estimated to be 26.13%. However, most of pores which might have been generated during membrane curing were not observed to be interconnected but isolated.

• Tunnel and Underground Space
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• v.21 no.1
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• pp.11-19
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• 2011

Geothermal energy is believed to be an important source among the renewable energy sources to provide the base load electricity. Although there has been a drastic increase in the use of geothermal heat pump in Korea, there is no geothermal power plant in operation in Korea. Fortunately, the first EGS (Enhanced Geothermal System) Project in Korea has started in Dec 2010. This five year project is divided into two stages; two years for exploration and drilling of 3 km depth to confirm the minimum target temperature of 100 degrees, and another three years composed drilling 5 km doublet, hydraulic stimulation of geothermal reservoir with expected temperature of 180 degrees (40 kg/s) and construction of MW geothermal power plant in the surface. This EGS project would be a landmark effort that invited a consortium of industry, research institutes and university with expertises in the fields of geology, hydrogeology, geophysics, geomechanics and plant engineering.

• Tunnel and Underground Space
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• v.20 no.6
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• pp.399-407
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• 2010

The horizontal response spectra using the observed ground motions from the recent more than 19 macro earthquakes were analysed and then were compared to both the seismic design response spectra (Reg Guide 1.60), applied to the domestic nuclear power plants, and the Korean Standard Design Response Spectrum for general structures and buildings (1997). 130 horizontal ground motions, without considering soil types, were used for normalization with respect to the peak acceleration value of each ground motion. The results showed that response spectrum have strong dependency on epicentral distance. The results also showed that the horizontal response spectra revealed much higher values for frequency bands above 5 Hz than Reg. Guide (1.60). The results were also compared to the Korean Standard Response Spectrum for the 3 different soil types and showed that the vertical response spectra revealed much higher values for the frequency bands below 0.3 second than the Korean Standard Response Spectrum (SD soil condition). These spectral values dependent on frequency could be related to characteristics of the domestic crustal attenuation and the effect of each site amplification. However, through the qualitative improvements and quantitative enhancement of the observed ground motions, the conservation of horizontal seismic design response spectrum should be considered more significantly for the frequency bands above 5 Hz.

• Tunnel and Underground Space
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• v.23 no.3
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• pp.169-179
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• 2013

Well testing in unconventional reservoirs, such as tight or shale gas formations, presents considerable challenges. It is difficult to estimate the reservoir properties in ultra-low permeability formation because of poor inflow prior to stimulation and excessive test duration. Moreover, radial flow may not develop in hydraulically fractured horizontal wells. For these reasons, the cost of test is high and the accuracy is relatively low. Accordingly, industry is turning to an alternate testing method, diagnostic fracture injection test (DFIT), which is conducted prior to the main hydraulic fracture treatments. Nowadays, DFIT are regarded as the most practical way to obtain good estimates of reservoir properties in unconventional reservoirs. Various methods may be used for interpreting DFIT data. This paper gives an explanation of those methods in detail and examines three actual field data. These show how various analysis methods can be applied to consistently interpret fracture closure pressure and time, as well as before and after closure flow regimes and reservoir properties from field data.

• Tunnel and Underground Space
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• v.29 no.5
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• pp.281-291
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• 2019

In Overseas case, most tunnels in under are or through the river are constructed with shield TBM and the manufacturer orders of related equipment suitable for the project are mode. Accordingly, the client provides the specifications required for the equipment manufacture. In addition, TBM equipment has been operated by those who have completed the expert training program, which for minimizing the risk of equipment operation in construction field corresponding to the mechanized construction. However, in Korea, such a system related to above the program and specifications has not yet been built, which is causing a lot of difficulties in construction field. Therefore, this study investigated the differences in bidding guides provided by mechanized construction in domestic and abroad, and the professional education programs for expert training being conducted from overseas. Futhermore, we will propose the guidelines of essential equipment specification contained in domestic bidding and provide the necessary manual for the professional education program for TBM as the mechanized construction method.

• Tunnel and Underground Space
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• v.29 no.3
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• pp.184-196
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• 2019

This study aims to extract a 3D image of micro-cracks generated by hydraulic fracturing tests, using the deep learning method and X-ray computed tomography images. The pixel-level cracks are difficult to be detected via conventional image processing methods, such as global thresholding, canny edge detection, and the region growing method. Thus, the convolutional neural network-based encoder-decoder network is adapted to extract and analyze the micro-crack quantitatively. The number of training data can be acquired by dividing, rotating, and flipping images and the optimum combination for the image augmentation method is verified. Application of the optimal image augmentation method shows enhanced performance for not only the validation dataset but also the test dataset. In addition, the influence of the original number of training data to the performance of the deep learning-based neural network is confirmed, and it leads to succeed the pixel-level crack detection.

• Tunnel and Underground Space
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• v.28 no.6
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• pp.584-595
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• 2018

This study conducted direct shear test on about 290 sorts of materials such as sandy soil, clayey soil and gravely soil to present proper standard on shear strength of soil. Shear strength of soil in large scale tends to show that angle of internal friction increases as sand contents grow and it ranges $23.5^{\circ}{\sim}34.9^{\circ}C$ with cohesion of 2.0 kPa~15.7 kPa. Elastic modulus was visibly distinct by load, and which increased approximately 80% as vertical load grows. Angle of internal friction arranging $15.0^{\circ}{\sim}28.6^{\circ}$ on clayey soil decreased as clay contents rises and cohesion increase in regular scale. Elastic modulus tends to increase initial elastic modulus with almost same growing rate. While angle of internal friction on gravely soil indicates $29.9^{\circ}{\sim}36.7^{\circ}$ which hardly shows distinctive features. According to test in detail, cohesion of SW (well-graded sand), SP (poorly-graded sand), SC (clayey sand) and SM (silty sand) indicates value by 94%, 78% and 59% comparing to SC, SW and SP respectively. Angle of internal friction of ML (low-liquid limit silt) and CL (low-liquid limit clay) appears almost same features, and MH (high-liquid limit silt) despite of 88% value of ML. Cohesion among them varies with similar growing rate.

• Tunnel and Underground Space
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• v.28 no.6
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• pp.596-608
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• 2018

As urban infrastructure is aging, the possibility of accidents due to the failures or breakdowns of infrastructure increases. Especially, aging underground infrastructures like sewer pipes, waterworks, and subway have a potential to cause an urban ground sink. Urban ground sink is defined just as a local and erratic collapse occurred by underground cavity due to soil erosion or soil loss, which is separated from a sinkhole in soluble bedrock such as limestone. The conventional measurements such as differential settlement gauge, inclinometer or earth pressure gauge have a shortcoming just to provide point measurements with short coverage. Therefore, these methods are not adequate for monitoring of an erratic subsidence caused by underground cavity due to soil erosion or soil loss which occurring at unspecified time and location. Therefore, an alternative technology is required to detect a change of underground physical condition in real time. In this study, the feasibility of a novel magnetic resonance based monitoring method is investigated through laboratory tests, where the changes of path loss (S21) were measured under various testing conditions: media including air, water, and soil, resonant frequency, impedance, and distances between transmitter (TX) and receiver (RX). Theoretically, the transfer characteristic of magnetic field is known to be independent of the density of the medium. However, the results of the test showed the meaningful differences in the path loss (S21) under the different conditions of medium. And it is found that the reflection coefficient showed the more distinct differences over the testing conditions than the path loss. In particular, input reflection coefficient (S11) is more distinguishable than output reflection coefficient (S22).

• Tunnel and Underground Space
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• v.28 no.6
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• pp.609-619
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• 2018

This study was carried out at a local limestone mine to analyze the ventilation efficiency of the shaft equipped with a main fan. The results show that its ventilation efficiency is clearly verified for the natural as well as the mechanical ventilation. The airflow rate of $11.7m^3/s$ was induced by the natural ventilation force and the maximum quantity is almost same as the airflow rate estimated by monitoring the average temperatures in the upcast and downcast air columns. Meanwhile, the airflow rate exhausted by the main fan through the shaft was $20.3{\sim}24.8m^3/s$; variation of the quantity was caused by the upward shift of the mine ventilation characteristic curve due to the frequent movement of the equipment. This indicates efforts are required to reduce the ventilation resistance and raise the quantity supplied by the main fan. The turbulent diffusion coefficients along the 1912 m long airway from the portal to the shaft bottom was estimated to be $15m^2/s$ and $18m^2/s$. Since these higher coefficients imply that contaminants will be dispersed at a faster velocity than the airflow, prompt exhaust method should be planned for the effective air quality control. The ventilation shaft and main fan are definitely what local limestone mines inevitably need for better working environment and sustainable development.