• Journal of Korean Tunnelling and Underground Space Association
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• v.20 no.2
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• pp.255-268
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• 2018

Subsea tunnel can be highly vulnerable to seawater intrusion due to unexpected high-water pressure during construction. An artificial ground freezing (AGF) will be a promising alternative to conventional reinforcement or water-tightening technology under high-water pressure conditions. In this study, the freezing energy and required time was calculated by the theoretical model of the heat flow to estimate the total amount of refrigerant required for the artificial ground freezing. A lab-scale freezing chamber was devised to investigate changes in the thermal and mechanical properties of sandy soil corresponding to the variation of the salinity and water pressure. The freezing time was measured with different conditions during the chamber freezing tests. Its validity was evaluated by comparing the results between the freezing chamber experiment and the numerical analysis. In particular, the freezing time showed no significant difference between the theoretical model and the numerical analysis. The amount of refrigerant for artificial ground freezing was estimated from the numerical analysis and the freezing efficiency obtained from the chamber test. In addition, the energy ratio for maintaining frozen status was calculated by the proposed formula. It is believed that the energy ratio for freezing will depend on the depth of rock cover in the subsea tunnels and the water temperature on the sea floor.

• Journal of Korean Tunnelling and Underground Space Association
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• v.20 no.1
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• pp.145-160
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• 2018

Long subsea tunnel is subject to many restrictions in terms of spatial limitation when vertical or inclined shafts are built for tunnel ventilation. So, the construction of some artificial island is required to provide ventilation. But, because of construction difficulty and cost increase, it is necessary to minimize the artificial island construction. As a result, ventilation distance become longer and supply airflow becomes excessive due to air leakage, So, duct mounting for temporary ventilation is impossible or fan pressure and power increase exponentially. Therefore, in order to build a long subsea tunnel, it is necessary to overcome these practical problems and to develop technical solution that can keep the comfortable condition of tunnel environment during construction. In previous study, we have found that air leakage is the key factor in solving these problems and experimental results show that the new connection method has a leakage rate of about $1.46mm^2/m^2$ (Jo et al., 2017). In this study, we present the experimental results of the measurement of the leakage rate of the prototype with the new connection method, and analyze experimentally the improvement of the leakage rate when applying the flexible cover inside the duct to improve the leakage performance of the existing connection method.

• Journal of Korean Tunnelling and Underground Space Association
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• v.18 no.1
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• pp.109-117
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• 2016

This paper is focused on the determination of friction parameter which is a predominant factor in the design of inflatable structure system. This inflatable structure system is very valuably used to protect passively and rapidly the possibilities of tunnel damages by flooding threats and unusual leakage to be occurred during and after underground infrastructure construction. In particular, this system should be necessary in subsea tunnel. This study presents the experimental results obtained from the relative friction characteristics tests of the fabric materials that constitute the inflatable structure. In order to evaluate the relative friction behaviour of the inflatable structure system, friction tests and scaled model tunnel friction tests are carried out. The friction tests are carried out to determine the friction coefficient for different surface conditions between tunnel and inflatable structure. These friction coefficients are then evaluated and compared with the result obtained from the model tunnel friction tests. Interaction behaviours between tunnel and system are also reviewed and described in this study. The results clearly show that the friction coefficients derived from scaled model slippage tests are about 12% lower than values obtained from the friction tests. In addition, this study will be necessary to verify the real friction behaviour with prototype tests before applying in practice.

• Journal of Korean Tunnelling and Underground Space Association
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• v.19 no.2
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• pp.161-177
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• 2017

This paper presents the design considerations and field applications on inflatable structure system to protect rapidly flooding damages in large section tunnel. This inflatable structure system is very valuably used to protect passively and rapidly the possibilities of tunnel damages by flooding threats and unusual leakage to be occurred during and after underground infrastructure. In particular, this system should be necessary in subsea tunnel. The predominant factors in the design of inflatable structure system are the leakage and friction characteristics between the inflater and tunnel liner. The analytical and experimental studies are performed to develop the design considerations and to examine the design parameters of the inflatable structure system. The analytical solutions are developed using membrane theory to suggest the design considerations. The relative friction tests of several fabric materials are also carried out to determine the friction characteristics according to the different friction conditions between inflater and tunnel surface. The test results show that the friction coefficients in wet surface condition are about 20% lower than the values in dry surface condition. In addition, virtual design of tunnel protection system for two virtual subsea tunnel sites which is under reviewing in Korea, is carried out based on this research. It is expected that the results of this research will be very useful to understand the inflater structure design and development the technology of tunnel protection structures in the future.

• Journal of Korean Tunnelling and Underground Space Association
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• v.20 no.6
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• pp.1147-1159
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• 2018

This study focuses on the verification of a rapid protection automation system using an inflatable structure. The inflatable structure is an automatic rapid protection system against human and material damage when the subsea tunnel is flooded. Especially, it is essential for construction and operation of subsea tunnels. In this study, we have experimentally verified the rapid protection automation system using the inflatable structure designed for this problem. In order to verify this, a model tunnel with a 40: 1 reduction ratio was constructed, and air pressure of 0.1 bar and 0.15 bar was injected to divide the tunnel according to the expansion rate at 10 sec and 20 sec. According to the results of the study, the protection efficiency was better at 0.15 bar than 0.1 bar when the expansion structure was expanded, and the protection efficiency and influent control efficiency were different according to the pneumatic injection time of the inflating structure. As a result of this study, it was found that the higher the internal air pressure of the inflated structure and the faster the inflation of rate, the more effectively the inflated structure was inflated. As a result of this study, it is necessary to further study the wedge type structure which is useful for the storage method of expansion structure, shape and expansion derivative, inhibition of expansion structure during protection and control of inflow water.

• Magazine of korean Tunnelling and Underground Space Association
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• v.13 no.6
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• pp.68-80
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• 2011

해저터널은 태풍, 폭우 등과 같은 악천후에도 안정적으로 자국내 도서지역 및 인접국가간 교통 및 물류수송체계 운용을 가능하게 하는 주요 사회기반시설로서 활용되어왔다. 이러한 해저터널 프로젝트를 안전하고 경제적으로 수행하기 위해서는 해저터널의 공학적 특성을 정확하게 이해하는 것이 매우 중요하다. 이에 해저터널의 지반조사를 중심으로 전반적으로 언급하였다. 해저터널은 육상터널과는 달리 조사, 설계 및 시공단계에 있어 많은 불확실성과 위험성을 가지고 있으므로, 프로젝트의 특성에 맞는 정밀하고 정확한 조사는 해저터널의 성공여부를 좌우할 수 있다. 따라서 계획단계에서 철저한 문헌조사 연구 및 해저지형, 지질구조 등에 대한 이해를 기반으로 해저지반 조사계획을 수립 및 수행하여야 한다. 또한 해저터널의 특성상 완벽한 지반조사는 불가능하므로 광범위한 조사에도 불구하고 사전에 예상치 못한 불량한 지반조건을 마주칠 가능성이 크므로, 불확실성과 위험성을 염두에 두고 설계 및 시공에 임하여야 한다.

• Journal of Korean Tunnelling and Underground Space Association
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• v.20 no.1
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• pp.1-9
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• 2018

Visibility is very poor in tunnel fire because of confined space where the fire may easily lead to the mass casuality incident because of fast smoke spread. In this test, air curtain and the fan were installed at rescue station in a bid to make use of rescue station in safe way during the train fire in undersea tunnel and a full-scale fire test was conducted to identify the applicability of air curtain system. Air curtain system was installed at a real rescue station and the test was continued for 2 minutes till heptane which was used as fire source was completely burned out. When air curtain was working, difference in temperature between inside and outside the platform was $160^{\circ}C$ and carbon monoxide measured inside the platform was less than the case of no air curtain system by 160 ppm. Thus a full-scale fire test demonstrated that the air curtain system installed at rescue station in undersea tunnel was able to effectively block the heat and smoke generated from the fire.

• Journal of Korean Tunnelling and Underground Space Association
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• v.18 no.5
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• pp.401-412
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• 2016

It is extremely difficult to apply conventional grouting methods to subsea tunnelling construction in the high water pressure condition. In such a condition, the rapid artificial freezing method can be an alternative to grouting to form a watertight zone around freezing pipes. For a proper design of the artificial freezing method, the influence of salinity on the freezing process has to be considered. However, there are few domestic tunnel construction that adopted the artificial freezing method, and influential factors on the freezing of the soil are not clearly identified. In this paper, a series of laboratory experiments were performed to identify the physical characteristics of frozen soil. Thermal conductivity of the frozen and unfrozen soil samples was measured through the thermal sensor adopting transient hot-wire method. Moreover, a lab-scale freezing chamber was devised to simulate freezing process of silica sand with consideration of the salinity of pore-water. The temperature in the silica sand sample was measured during the freezing process to evaluate the effect of pore-water salinity on the frozen rate that is one of the key parameters in designing the artificial freezing method in subsea tunnelling. In case of unfrozen soil, the soil samples saturated with fresh water (salinity of 0%) and brine water (salinity of 3.5%) showed a similar value of thermal conductivity. However, the frozen soil sample saturated with brine water led to the thermal conductivity notably higher than that of fresh water, which corresponds to the fact that the freezing rate of brine water was greater than that of fresh water in the freezing chamber test.

• Journal of Korean Tunnelling and Underground Space Association
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• v.18 no.4
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• pp.355-364
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• 2016

Recently, a 3,250 meter-long tunnel was constructed beneath the sea bed formed of composite sedimentary soils to transport reusable waste heat gas of industrial complex in the west coast of Korea. Some risks such as machine settlement always exist due to the uncertainties of geological and construction factors during the subsea shield TBM tunnelling. In this construction site, the deviation of tunnel alignment caused by shield TBM settlement was occurred during excavation. It was examined that the lack of bearing capacity of soft clay was a main cause. This paper evaluates the risk of shield TBM tunnelling considering the ground conditions. Correlation between machine settlement and its advance rate was evaluated through the analytical equation in which bearing capacity is considered and a 3-D numerical analysis which can simulate the TBM advance condition (in other words, the dynamic condition). It was found out that a shield TBM could settle due to the insufficient bearing capacity of soft clay layers. In order to prevent such the problem, the best advance rate proper to the ground characteristics is needed to be applied. In the ground conditions of the section of interest, it was turned out that if the shield TBM advance rate was maintained between 35 mm/min and 40 mm/min, the machine settlement could be avoided.

• Journal of Korean Tunnelling and Underground Space Association
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• v.16 no.2
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• pp.161-172
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• 2014

An earth pressure balanced shield TBM with the diameter of 4.4 m was designed and manufactured for a subsea discharge tunnel excavation. Its cutterhead was designed to be optimized for the strongest rock mass condition in the tunnel alignment, and then the applicability of the refurbished shield TBM was validated for its maximum capacity. Especially, the maximum cutter penetration depth for the strongest rock mass condition should be kept to be below 7 mm/rev in order to satisfy the allowable capacities of the shield TBM. From the analysis of TBM advance data, approximately 95% of field data showed the cutter penetration depth below 7 mm/rev. In addition, it was certified that the acting forces of every disc cutter, TBM thrust and torque during TBM driving were within the allowable capacities of the shield TBM and its disc cutters. When real acting forces of the disc cutters in the field were compared with those predicted by the CSM model, they showed the close relationships with each other even though the predictions by the CSM model were approximately 22~25% higher than field data.