Discontinuities exert great influence on the thermal, hydraulic, and mechanical behavior of rock mass. Rock joint is one of the most frequently encountered discontinuities in many engineering applications, such as tunnel, rock slope and repository for high level radioactive waste. Therefore, the effects of rock joint should be thoroughly investigated in various aspects. Rock joint has gone through many geological processes and its behavior can be characterized by many properties. Among them, geometric properties, such as joint roughness, aperture, and contact area can affect mechanical and hydraulic properties and vice versa. Therefore, accurate understanding and characterization of the geometric properties are of importance. Generally, the geometric properties of a joint are obtained or estimated using the surface height or elevation, which could be measured by various contact or noncontact methods. Then, the coordinates of the surfaces are used to calculate several parameters, for instance roughness indexes and mechanical aperture, in a quantitative manner. This paper is a part of SKB task force project that aims to evaluate the geometric properties of rock joints and to analyze the hydromechanical behavior within a rough joint considering the properties. Four pairs of joint surfaces were laser-scanned in order to obtain coordinates of the surfaces and then the coordinates were used to calculate the roughness, directional roughness, aperture, and spatial correlations. At the same time, fluid flow within a rough joint were simulated by a commercial FEM code, considering the variation of aperture space due to normal load. Flowrate, flow path, and channelization were investigated in an aperture scale. Since rock mass consists of several joints and/or joint sets, characterization of a single rock joint can be utilized for analyzing the behavior of rock mass as a reference.
A rock joint exerts significant influences on the rock mass behavior in terms of thermal, hydraulic, and mechanical (THM) aspects. Therefore, its features should be thoroughly investigated in various rock mechanical projects, such as high-level radioactive waste (HLW) disposal repository, tunnel, and rock slope. Meanwhile, it is essential to guarantee the safety of the disposal repository for a very long period of time and it should prepare measures for various risks, which may possibly encounter during that period. In general, direct shear tests for a rock joint are conducted to investigate the possibility of frictional sliding of the joint under specific loading conditions or to predict the shear strength of the joint. However, it is necessary to consider whether regional sliding of a rock joint or reactivation of a fault might occur due to an earthquake or redistribution of the in-situ stresses because the expected operation period of the repository is quite long, and various situations can happen. A slide-hold-slide test for a rock joint is a practical test that can investigate the time-dependent behavior or frictionalhealing of a joint. The test enables an estimation of the stress build-up phenomenon after strain energy release in a quantitative manner. In this study, a series of slide-hold-slide tests were carried out in order to investigate the characteristics. Joint specimens were made from mortar, which is a rock-like and brittle material, so as to consider the effect of joint roughness and to secure the reproducibility of the tests. At the same time, mechanical conditions as well as thermal and hydraulic were applied in order to take the environment of the repository into account. As a result, the behavior of shear stress recovery was observed, and the effects of THM coupled condition on the recovery were investigated. This study presents fundamental results of the experiments, and further research outcomes, including time dependent behavior of a joint, will be presented sequentially.
본 연구에서는 암반 내에 존재하는 절리가 암반의 구조거동에 미치는 영향을 유한요소해석을 통하여 분석하였다. 절리에 따른 암반의 이방성 비선형 거동을 유한요소화하기 위하여 암반의 응력-변형률 관계를 구성모형화하고, 이를 기준으로 유한유소해석 program을 구성하였다. 여기서, 해석과정에 필요한 계산을 효율적으로 하기 위하여 하중재하 방법과 해석영역의 크기를 검토하여 문제의 크기를 최소화하도록 하였다. 해석대상으로 암반 내에 굴착되는 원형 공동을 택하여 절리의 존재여부에 따른 거동의 변화를 검토하여 절리의 비선형거동이 합리적으로 모형화되었음을 검증하였다. 다음, 절리 방향의 변화에 따라 응력이완상태, 변위, 변형형태 등에 미치는 영향을 검토하였다. 해석 및 분석의 결과, 절리의 방향성은 암반의 비선형거동에 영향을 많이 미치며, 그 영향은 공동의 중심을 기준으로 하여 절리방향에 직각인 방향의 부위에 절리의 활동이 집중되게 한다는 것을 밝혔다. 또한, 원형은 변형 후, 절리의 방향이 장축이 되는 타원형태로 됨을 보였다.