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.

• Seungbeom Choi(Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute (KAERI))
• Yongki Lee(Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute (KAERI))
• Taehyun Kim(Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute (KAERI)) Corresponding author