Seminar Series: Dr. Tae-Min Oh on Hard Rock Excavation Using Abrasive Waterjet Technology

College Station, TX – 

Dr. Tae-Min Oh visited TAMU on September 29th to present his work on “Hard Rock Excavation Using Abrasive Waterjet Technology,” to Civil Engineering Graduate Students. The graduate seminar, Structures, Geotechnical and Construction Division is instructed by Dr. Zenon Medina-Cetina, Associate Professor in the Zachry Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Texas A&M University. Dr. Oh is currently a visiting professor in the department and is hosted by Zachry professor, Dr. Charles Aubeny.

Dr. Oh has been serving as an Associate Professor in the Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering at Pusan National University, Republic of Korea since 2018. He received his doctorate in Geotechnical Engineering from Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology(KAIST) in 2012. His main research interests include hard rock excavation, sediment characteristics using elastic waves, electrical resistivity, and health monitoring for underground structures.  He is also involved in the Brain Korea Plus Project, supported by the Ministry of Education, Korea, and serves as a manuscript editor for the Journal of Korea Tunneling and Underground Space Association and he is an associate editor for KSCE Journal of Civil Engineering (SCIE).

During his presentation, Dr. Oh made clear that highly developed metropolitan cities demand underground space for the effective use of limited land. Ground vibration induced by construction blasting processes can cause serious problems in the vicinity of the construction sites when large underground structures such as transportation tunnels are constructed in urban areas.

Dr. Tae-Min Oh’s presentation focused on how abrasive waterjet technology can be applied in the cutting and drilling of hard rock as it offers three principal advantages:

1. Eco-friend construction (only water and sands are used for excavation)
2. High versatility
3. No mechanical stress generated.

Thus, an abrasive waterjet can be very useful to excavate rock in mining or civil engineering projects.  The innovative vibration-reduced excavation method will be introduced in the presentation. This rock excavation method using the abrasive waterjet system is highly necessary to achieve the green construction of underground structures. *

*Abstract and Bio provided by Dr. Tae-Min Oh