• The Journal of Engineering Geology
• /
• v.24 no.3
• /
• pp.373-381
• /
• 2014

It is difficult to predict the magnitude of a rockfall with respect to the shape, volume, and weight of the rock mass, as a rockfall exhibits erratic behavior that depends on the slope geometry, such as the height and dip of the slope. In this study, a field survey was conducted on the slopes of Ulleung-Do, South Korea, where rockfalls frequently occur along coastal roads, to classify the mode of rockfalls and estimate their magnitude. This study also analyzed the effects of rockfall behavior on roads by applying a simulation technique. Agglomerate and trachytic rocks distributed across the study area produce rockfalls in a differential weathering rockfall mode and a toppling rockfall mode. In terms of rockfall weight, trachytic rockfalls were 2-3 times heavier than agglomerate rockfalls. An analysis of rockfall behavior from the simulation indicates that the impact energy on the road exceeded the absorbing energy of a standard rockfall protection fence; however, the rockfall was secured when a ring-net was applied.

• Economic and Environmental Geology
• /
• v.55 no.5
• /
• pp.497-510
• /
• 2022

Monthly monitoring, 3D scan survey, and electrical resistivity survey were conducted from January 2018 to August 2022 to identify the cause of rockfall occurring in Daljeon-ri Columnar Joint (Natural Monument No. 415), Pohang. A total of 3,231 rocks fell from the columnar joint over the past 5 years, and 1,521 (47%) of the falling rocks were below 20 cm in length, 978 (30.3%) of 20-30 cm, and 732 (22.7%) of rocks over 30 cm. While the number of rockfalls by year has decreased since 2018, the frequency of rockfalls bigger than 30 cm tends to increase. Large-scale rockfalls occurred mainly during the thawing season (March-April) and the rainy season (June-July), and the analysis of the relationship between cumulative rainfall and rockfall occurrence showed that cumulative rainfall for 3 to 4 days is also closely related to the occurrence of rockfall. Smectite and illite, which are expansible clay minerals, were observed in XRD analysis of the slope material (filling minerals) in the columnar joint, and the presence of a fault fracture zone was confirmed in the electrical resistivity survey. In addition, the confirmed fault fracture zone and the maximum erosion point analyzed through 3D precision measurement coincided with the main rockfall occurrence point observed by the BTC-6PXD camera. Therefore, the main cause of rockfall at Daljeon-ri columnar joint in Pohang is a combination of internal factors (development of fault fracture zones and joints, weathering of rocks, presence of expansive clay minerals) and external factors (precipitation, rapid thawing phenomenon), resulting in large-scale rockfall. Meanwhile, it was also confirmed that the Pohang-Gyeongju earthquake, which was continuously raised, was not the main cause.

• Proceedings of the Korean Geotechical Society Conference
• /
• 2008.10a
• /
• pp.910-920
• /
• 2008

In Korea, more than 70% of the territory consists of mountains. Therefore, the construction of roads and railways has generally involved with a steep rock slope in which the event of rockfalls are often occurred due to the weathered rock conditions and rainfalls etc. This is dangerous when the rock falls into the road and railway on which vehicles and trains are running. In order to prevent such rockfalls, the rockfall protection fence consisting of post, wire rope, and PVC coating steel net has most used at the bottom of rock slopes. In a general practice, an absorbing rockfall energy, 50kJ is specified by the Ministry of Construction and Transportation. However, questions still remain about whether the rockfall protection fence works effectively or not. In this study, a typical wire rope used in the standard rockfall protection fence was replaced by the high carbon steel wire rod and to validate its capacity of rockfall energy absorbing the field rockfall tests were conducted. The testing results show that a new rockfall protection fence using the high carbon steel wire rods can absorb the rockfall energy more than 50kJ and 20% of construction cost was saved in comparison with the previous rockfall protection fence.

• 한국지구물리탐사학회:학술대회논문집
• /
• 2003.11a
• /
• pp.548-552
• /
• 2003

During the last few decades, the frequency and distribution of rockfalls have been increased in Korea due the development of rock slope in mountain areas. Although the scale of, falling block of rockfall was small, there were some casualties of lives and loss of properties. In order to reduce damage from rockfall, analysis on rock slope indanger of rockfall should be carried out. Thus, the simulation softwares for rockfall behavior analysis have been introduced. In this study, geotechnical investigation and input data for rockfall simulation are described with the comparison among four commercially available rockfall simulation softwares. Finally, rockfall simulation works are described by exmining a case of inaccessible rock-slope of potential rockfall in Korea.

• 한국방재학회:학술대회논문집
• /
• 2008.02a
• /
• pp.565-568
• /
• 2008

This study area, Sanbang mountain located in southern part of Jeju island, is famous for its scenic with increasing foreigners and visitors. However, rockfall frequently occurred because of the meteorological characteristic and geological features with trachyte, a sort of volcanic rock, is distributed through Sanbang mountain area and also additional rockfalls are being existed all the time. Therefore this research is to see reasonable countermeasure against rockfall with the subject of a roundabout way of Sanbang mountain, through field investigation and following analysis.

• Journal of Electrical Engineering and Technology
• /
• v.4 no.1
• /
• pp.143-148
• /
• 2009

About 70% of Korea consists of mountainous areas, and during the construction of many roads and railroads, cut slopes are inevitably formed. The rainy season, frost heaving in winter, and thawing in spring can all cause rockfalls and landslides. The failure of these slopes is increasing every year, causing damage to vehicles, personal injury and even death. To protect people and property from such damage, a real-time monitoring system is needed to detect the early stages of slope failures. The GMG placed TRS sensor units in the slopes to monitor them in real-time. But due to its reliance on data lines and power lines, the system is vulnerable to lightning damage. The whole system can be damaged by a single lighting strike. Consequently, for the purposes of this paper we propose the use of the Ubiquitous Sensor Network (USN) which follows the IEEE 802.1.4. By using the USN system we can minimize lightning damage and can monitor the movement of the slopes consistently.

• Journal of the Korean GEO-environmental Society
• /
• v.21 no.12
• /
• pp.17-21
• /
• 2020

Over 60% of South Korea's land consists of mountainous topography, and recently, due to earthquakes, localized heavy rains and road development, the risks of rockfalls are getting higher. As of now, rockfall prevention facilities are being constructed in 70% of Korean roads cut slope and rockfall protections account for about 20% of them. Rockfall protection's supporting capacity is defined by combining performance of wire mesh, pillars and wire ropes. For the existing constructed rockfall protection, standards of pillars that can absorb 48~61 kJ amount of energy, wire ropes and wire mesh are presented in Guidelines for the installation and management of traffic safety facilities, Rockfall prevention facilities by Ministry of Land, Transport and Maritime Affairs (2008). However, each factor's correlation of absorption energy is not presented so it is uncertain. This study will conduct vertical drop test and identify adequacy of rockfall protection net of displacement quantity calculation factor which is delta and evaluate rockfall protection net's absorbable energy through standards of overseas performance evaluation criteria.

• The Journal of Engineering Geology
• /
• v.22 no.3
• /
• pp.353-363
• /
• 2012

The geology of Ulleung-Do is dominated by volcanic rocks with low strength and trachytic rocks with high strength but containing vertical joints that yield easily. Consequently, rockfalls along roadcuts are a major geological hazard, with the potential to affect the ring road of Ulleung-Do. In this study, we performed three types of rockfall hazard-risk assessment on the 3-km-long section of the ring road expected to have the highest possibility of rockfall. We used a rockfall ranking sheet in a roadside landslide hazard map, the Slope Stability Inspection Manual for National Highways (Japan), and a rockfall hazard rating system for inspection from the Japan Highway Public Corporation. We also employed the evaluation criteria of 'RHRS' developed by the Federal Highway Administration (FHA). An analysis of roadcuts at 27 sites with regard to geographic and geological conditions resulted in the identification of three classes of rockfall hazard (high, medium, and low). Of note, over 74% of slopes were assessed as high- and medium-class. Finally, a rockfall hazard map of the northeast region of Ulleung-Do was produced based on the evaluation results.

• Tunnel and Underground Space
• /
• v.22 no.5
• /
• pp.297-309
• /
• 2012

The stability assessment of abandoned gangway for the purpose of services was performed. Among the many factors that affect the stability of openings, the span of the opening in a given rock mass condition provides an important element of design. In this paper, the stability of gangway was assessed by the critical span curves proposed by Lang, the modified Mathews'stability graph method and using support measures of the Q system. In the evaluation of stability as a whole the gangway is considered as stable. But the rockfalls of wedge-shaped blocks were expected in the area in which the horizontal joints of low angle appear. The support measures such as local rock bolts are required to use for commercial purposes of the abandoned gangway. And entrance section may require the particular attention as unstable section. Since there are so many spalling due to bad blasting in the roof and sidewall of gangway, the scaling operations should be followed primarily.

• Proceedings of the Korean Geotechical Society Conference
• /
• 2000.11b
• /
• pp.3-38
• /
• 2000

Slope draperies in soil and rock are a well known method to avoid rockfalls into the roads or onto housings. Common wire mesh or a combination of wire mesh and wire rope nets are pinned to the slope by the means of fully grouted nails or anchors. Most of these installations have not been designed to stabilize the slope, but simply avoid the rocks from bouncing. The combination of soil- or rocknailing with a designable flexible facing system offers the advantage of a longterm stabilization of slopes and can replace other standard methods for slope stabilization. The capability to transfer axial and shear loads from the flexible facing system to the anchor points is most decisive for the design of the stabilization system. But the transfer of forces by mesh as pure surface protection devices is limited on account of their tensile strength and above all also by the possible force transmission to the anchoring points. Strong wire rope nets increase the performance for slope stabilizations with greater distances between nails and anchors and are widely used in Europe. However, they are comparatively expensive in relation to the protected surface. Today, special processes enable the production of diagonally structured mesh from high-tensile steel wire. These mesh provide tensile strengths comparable to wire rope nets. The interaction of mesh and fastening to nail / anchor has been investigated in comprehensive laboratory tests. This also in an effort to find a suitable fastening plates which allows an optimal utilization of the strength of the mesh in tangential (slope-parallel) as well as in vertical direction (perpendicular to the slope). The trials also confirmed that these new mesh, in combination with suitable plates, enable substantial pretensioning of the system. Such pretensioning increases the efficiency of the protection system. This restricts deformations in the surface section of critical slopes which might otherwise cause slides and movements as a result of dilatation. Suitable dimensioning models permit to correctly dimension such systems. The new mesh with the adapted fastening elements have already been installed in first pilot projects in Switzerland and Germany and provide useful information on handling and effects.