• Journal of Korean Tunnelling and Underground Space Association
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• v.24 no.6
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• pp.699-714
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• 2022

The objective of this study is to suggest a safe and economical pillar reinforcement method when very near-twin tunnels with a minimum interval of 1 m passes through a soft zone such as weathered soil or weathered rock. A standard cross-sectional view of a two-lane road tunnel was applied to suggest a pillar reinforcement method for the very near-twin tunnels. The thickness of the pillar was 1 m. The ground condition around the tunnel was weathered soil or weathered rock. There were four reinforcement methods for pillar stability evaluation. These were rock bolt reinforcement, pre-stressed steel strand reinforcement, horizontal steel pipe grouting reinforcement, horizontal steel pipe grouting + prestressed steel strand reinforcement. When the ground condition was weathered soil, only the pillar reinforced the horizontal steel pipe grouting + prestressed steel strand did not failed. When the ground condition was weathered rock, there were no failure of the pillar reinforced the horizontal steel pipe grouting or the horizontal steel pipe grouting + prestressed steel strand. It is considered that the horizontal steel pipe grouting reinforcement played a role in increasing the stability of the upper part of the pillar by supporting the upper load applied to the upper part of the pillar.

• KSCE Journal of Civil and Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.31 no.4C
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• pp.147-154
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• 2011

Currently NATM tunnels are designed by applying the initial ground loads caused during construction to the primary supports, conisting of shotcrete, steel ribs and rock bolts. For long term considerations, it is assumed that the primary supports lose its functionality and therefore the secondary support, i.e. concrete lining, is design to resist against the entire ground loads. But the steel ribs, usually applied to bad ground conditions, are embedded in shotcrete causing very little corrosion and therefore the assumption that the primary support will lose all of its functionality is too conservative. Also even though shotcrete carbonates in long term, excluding it from design is also too conservative. In this study, we have, through analytical and numerical analysis, set a rational level of support pressure and allowable relaxed rock mass height sustainable by the primary support for long term design. Changes in sectional forces of the concrete lining considering the calculated support pressure of the primary supports was also carried out. Shallow subway tunnels were considered in the analysis with weathered rock and soft rock ground conditions. The analysis results showed that, by considering the support pressure of steel ribs, an economical design of the concrete lining is possible.

• Journal of Korean Tunnelling and Underground Space Association
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• v.25 no.2
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• pp.65-85
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• 2023

The use of TBM (Tunnel boring machine) has increased worldwide due to its performance together with the benefit of being safely and environmentally friendly compared to conventional tunneling. In particular, EPB (Earth Pressure Balanced) TBM is widely used because it can be applied to various grounds compared to Open TBM. Also EPB TBM has a simple mechanical structure and advantages in cost, requires less ground area than Slurry TBM. EPB TBM has advantages in soft ground, and more importantly, can extend its applicability by use of appropriate soil conditioning, which improves mechanical and hydrological properties of excavated soil and increases the excavation performance of EPB TBM. Various studies suggested the proper mixing ratio and injection ratio, but almost they are limited to laboratory test under atmospheric pressure such as slump test. Actual field conditions may differ depending on the ground and mechanical condition. In this study, first the amount of used soil conditioning used in the field with various grounds from hard rock to soft ground was estimated through laboratory tests and compared with the estimate in design stage. And also it was compared with the amount used during actual excavation. In addition, experience of soil conditioning for the problems of cutter head clogging and groundwater inrush that occurred during excavation is discussed. Finally, lesson learned for the use of soil conditioning in difficult ground condition such as mixed ground are reviewed.

• Journal of Korean Tunnelling and Underground Space Association
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• v.22 no.5
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• pp.543-561
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• 2020

This paper is the result of the study on the effect of the support structure of the tunnel steel rib. In tunnel excavation, the top and bottom half excavation methods result in subsidence of steel rib reinforcement due to insufficient support of steel rib reinforcement when the ground is poor after excavation. The foundation of the steel rib installed in the upper half excavates the bottom part of the base, causing the subsidence to occur due to various effects such as internal load and lateral pressure. As a result, the tunnel is difficult to maintain and its safety is problematic. To solve these problems, steel rib support structures have been developed. For the purpose of verification, the behavior of the supporting structure is verified by model experiments reduced to shotcrete and steel rib material similarity, the numerical analysis of ΔP and ΔP generated by bottom excavation by Terzaghi theoretical equation. As a result, it was found that the support structure of 20.100~198.423 kN is required for the 10~40 m section of the depth for each soil of weathered soil~soft rock. In addition, as a result of the reduced model experiment, a fixed level of 50% steel rib deposit of steel rib support structure was installed. The study shows that the installation of steel rib support structures will compensate for uncertainties and various problems during construction. It is also thought that the installation of steel rib support structure will have many effects such as stability, economy, and air reduction.

• Tunnel and Underground Space
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• v.26 no.6
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• pp.508-515
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• 2016

In this study, we compared the stability of the pillars by using room and pillar mining method with the four models with different stiffness and pillar overlap ratio. The experimental models consist of two plaster models (overlap ratio 0%, 100%) and two cement models(overlap ratio 0%, 100%). The soft and hard rocks are modeled by plaster and cement models respectively. In these experiments, the model materials with strength values reflecting the calculated scaled factors not been used, so it is not a true scaled model test that reproduces in situ state in the laboratory. Experimental results show that the different overlap ratio pillars are one of the factors that can affect the stability of the mine.

• Tunnel and Underground Space
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• v.32 no.6
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• pp.586-597
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• 2022

In this study, a model was developed for the estimating the locational thickness information of the upper clay layer to be used for the consolidation vulnerability evaluation in the Nakdong river estuary. To estimate ground layer thickness information, we developed four spatial estimation models using machine learning algorithms, which are RF (Random Forest), SVR (Support Vector Regression) and GPR (Gaussian Process Regression), and geostatistical technique such as Ordinary Kriging. Among the 4,712 borehole data in the study area collected for model development, 2,948 borehole data with an upper clay layer were used, and Pearson correlation coefficient and mean squared error were used to quantitatively evaluate the performance of the developed models. In addition, for qualitative evaluation, each model was used throughout the study area to estimate the information of the upper clay layer, and the thickness distribution characteristics of it were compared with each other.

• Journal of the Korean GEO-environmental Society
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• v.15 no.12
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• pp.117-128
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• 2014

Generally, when constructing a tunnel close to existing structures, the tunnel must be built at a constant distance from the structures that is more than width of tunnel to minimize the impact of interference between an existing structures and new tunnel. Spacing of these closed tunnels should be designed considering soil state, size of tunnel and reinforcement method. Particularly when the ground is soft, a care should be taken with the tunnel plans because the closer the tunnel is to the existing structures, the greater the deformation becomes. As methods of reviewing the effect of cavities on the stability of a tunnel, field measurement, numerical analysis and scaled model test can be considered. In the methods, the scaled model test can reproduce the engineering characteristics of a rock in a field condition and the shape of structures using the scale factor even not all conditions cannot be considered. In this study, when construction of a tunnel close to existing structures, the method and considering factors of the scaled model test were studied to predict the actual tunnel behavior in planning stage. Furthermore, model test results were compared with the numerical analysis results for verifying the proposed model test procedure. Also, practical results were derived to verify the stability of a tunnel vis-a-vis cavities through the scaled model test, which assumed spacing distances of 0.25 D, 0.50 D, and 1.00 D between the cavities and tunnel as well as the network state distribution. The spacing distances of 1.0 D is evaluated as the critical distance by the results of model test and numerical analysis.

• Tunnel and Underground Space
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• v.28 no.4
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• pp.325-342
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• 2018

The ${\bigcirc}{\bigcirc}$ mines have been tried in various ways to perform secondary and tertiary mining in fragile rock properties. For such mining, the panels should be maintained while the mining compartments are divided and paneled. In this study, the mining gate between the panels was maintained by a steel beam and the panel life time was probabilistic evaluated. We used Taylor's formula for panel life time and modified the Pert distribution conceptually. The main input data were determined by the Pert distribution, and Monte Carlo simulation was performed to evaluate the panel life time for the probability distribution. As a result, it was analyzed that the panels could be stand-up time from a minimum of 6.5 days to a maximum of 20.6 days when the panel width was 18 to 25 m. At the confidence level of 90%, the panel life time was analyzed as 8.2-15.6 days. The short panel life time is not possible with the panel mining. Therefore, it was planned to construct a steel beam for panel maintenance. As result, it was analyzed that steel beam for panel maintenance with mining plan of less than 3 years according to mine could maintain panel within 90% confidence level.

• Journal of Korean Tunnelling and Underground Space Association
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• v.24 no.6
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• pp.599-615
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• 2022

In order to excavate underground tunnel most safely such as Han river, the slurry shield TBM method is applied to cope with face of high water pressure for many metro projects. In downtown subway project most of excavated soil is discharged externally whereas in road construction excavated soil is used as filling materials so it becomes important factor for success of the project. After excavated soil, weathered rock and soft rock are discharged with bentonite through discharge pipe to slurry treatment plant then those soils are separated in separation plant according to those size. Fine grained soil has been discarded together with filter cake but it is not toxic and can be mixed with coarse aggregate in proper ratio so this study is performed to find use of qualified filling material to meet quality standard. Therefore, in this study, legal standards and quality standards for the utilization of excavated soil of the slurry shield TBM method were examined and test was conducted to derive recycling way for filter cake and aggregate. And a plan for using it as a filling material for road construction was derived. Because bentonite is a clay composed of montmorillonite, and the excavated soil in the tunnel is also non-toxic, disposal of this material can waste social cost so it is expected to be helpful in the underground space development project that carries out the TBM project by recycling it as a valuable resource.

• Journal of the Korean Geosynthetics Society
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• v.14 no.2
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• pp.23-33
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• 2015

The earth pressure acting on underground structure was measured by application of the instrumentation system in the subway construction site constructed by the method of cut-and-cover tunnel. The measured earth pressure was compared with the earth pressure obtained from the existed theoretical equation, and the actual earth pressure diagram acting on the underground structure was investigated. As a result of investigation, the vertical earth pressure is mainly affected by the embankment height, and the lateral earth pressure is significantly affected by whether the existence of earth retaining structures or not. The measured vertical earth pressure is very similar to the theoretical earth pressure proposed by Bierbaumer. The measured lateral earth pressure is closed to the active earth pressure proposed by Rankine rather than the earth pressure at rest. The coefficient of earth pressure in soil deposit layer is about 0.35, and the coefficient in soft rock deposit layer is about 0.21. For design and construction the underground structures, therefore, it is reasonable estimation that the lateral earth pressure acting on structures installed in soil deposit layers is an average value between active earth pressure and earth pressure at rest. In rock deposit layers, the lateral earth pressure acting on structure is an active earth pressure only.