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.

PSC continuous girders have been used to improve the stability of simply supported girders. The loss of prestress is one of important factors for rational design and construction of the PSC girders. Measurements of prestress loss were conducted with the several test variables that reflect the conditions of continuous joint. Results show that the prestress loss is closely related to a eccentricity.

This paper presents the estimation of the frictional coefficient of the wheel-legged robot with hip joint actuation producing maximum tractive force. Slip behavior for wheel-legged robot is analytically explored and physically understood by identification of the non-slip condition and derivation of the torque limits satisfying it. Utilizing results of the analysis of slip behavior, the frictional coefficients of the wheel-legged robot during stance phase are numerically estimated and finally this paper suggests the pseudo-algorithm which can not only estimate the frictional coefficients of the wheel-legged robot, but also produce the candidate of the touch down angle for the next stance.