An increased global supply of minerals is essential to meet the needs and expectations of a rapidly rising world population. This implies extraction from greater depths. Autonomous mining systems, developed through su...An increased global supply of minerals is essential to meet the needs and expectations of a rapidly rising world population. This implies extraction from greater depths. Autonomous mining systems, developed through sustained R＆D by equipment suppliers, reduce miner exposure to hostile work environments and increase safety. This places increased focus on ＂ground control＂ and on rock mechanics to define the depth to which minerals may be extracted economically. Although significant efforts have been made since the end of World War II to apply mechanics to mine design, there have been both technological and organizational obstacles. Rock in situ is a more complex engineering material than is typically encountered in most other engineering disciplines. Mining engineering has relied heavily on empirical procedures in design for thousands of years. These are no longer adequate to address the challenges of the 21st century, as mines venture to increasingly greater depths. The development of the synthetic rock mass （SRM） in 2008 provides researchers with the ability to analyze the deformational behavior of rock masses that are anisotropic and discontinuous-attributes that were described as the defining characteristics of in situ rock by Leopold Mfiller, the president and founder of the International Society for Rock Mechanics （ISRM）, in 1966. Recent developments in the numerical modeling of large-scale mining operations （e.g., caving） using the SRM reveal unanticipated deformational behavior of the rock. The application of massive parallelization and cloud computational techniques offers major opportunities： for example, to assess uncertainties in numerical predictions： to establish the mechanics basis for the empirical rules now used in rock engineering and their validity for the prediction of rock mass behavior beyond current experience： and to use the discrete element method （DEM） in the optimization of deep mine design. For the first time, mining-and rock engineering-will have its own mechanics-based Ulaboratory.＂ This promises to be a major tool in future planning for effective mining at depth. The paper concludes with a discussion of an opportunity to demonstrate the application of DEM and SRM procedures as a laboratory, by back-analysis of mining methods used over the 80-year history of the Mount Lvell Copper Mine in Tasmania.展开更多
HDS-SPAC,a new soil-plant-atmosphere continuum(SPAC) model,is developed for simulating water and heat transfer in SPAC.The model adopts a recently proposed hybrid dual source approach for soil evaporation and plant tr...HDS-SPAC,a new soil-plant-atmosphere continuum(SPAC) model,is developed for simulating water and heat transfer in SPAC.The model adopts a recently proposed hybrid dual source approach for soil evaporation and plant transpiration partitioning.For the above-ground part,a layer approach is used to partition available energy and calculate aerodynamic resistances,while a patch approach is used to derive sensible heat and latent heat fluxes from the two sources(soil and vegetation).For the below-ground part,soil water and heat dynamics are described by the mixed form of Richards equation,and the soil heat conductivity equation,respectively.These two parts are coupled through ground heat flux for energy transfer,root-zone water potential-dependent stomatal resistance,and surface soil water potential-dependent evaporation for water transfer.Evaporation is calculated from the water potential gradient at soil-atmosphere interface and aerodynamic resistance,and transpiration is determined using a Jarvis-type function linking soil water availability and atmospheric conditions.Some other processes,such as canopy interception and deep percolation,are also considered in the HDS-SPAC model.The hybrid dual-source approach allows HDS-SPAC to simulate heat and water transfer in an ecosystem with a large range of vegetation cover change temporally or spatially.The model was tested with observations at a wheat field in North China Plain over a time of three months covering both wet and dry conditions.The fractional crop covers change from 30% to over 90%.The results indicated that the HDS-SPAC model can estimate actual evaporation and transpiration partitioning and soil water content and temperature over the whole range of tested vegetation coverage.展开更多
文摘An increased global supply of minerals is essential to meet the needs and expectations of a rapidly rising world population. This implies extraction from greater depths. Autonomous mining systems, developed through sustained R＆D by equipment suppliers, reduce miner exposure to hostile work environments and increase safety. This places increased focus on ＂ground control＂ and on rock mechanics to define the depth to which minerals may be extracted economically. Although significant efforts have been made since the end of World War II to apply mechanics to mine design, there have been both technological and organizational obstacles. Rock in situ is a more complex engineering material than is typically encountered in most other engineering disciplines. Mining engineering has relied heavily on empirical procedures in design for thousands of years. These are no longer adequate to address the challenges of the 21st century, as mines venture to increasingly greater depths. The development of the synthetic rock mass （SRM） in 2008 provides researchers with the ability to analyze the deformational behavior of rock masses that are anisotropic and discontinuous-attributes that were described as the defining characteristics of in situ rock by Leopold Mfiller, the president and founder of the International Society for Rock Mechanics （ISRM）, in 1966. Recent developments in the numerical modeling of large-scale mining operations （e.g., caving） using the SRM reveal unanticipated deformational behavior of the rock. The application of massive parallelization and cloud computational techniques offers major opportunities： for example, to assess uncertainties in numerical predictions： to establish the mechanics basis for the empirical rules now used in rock engineering and their validity for the prediction of rock mass behavior beyond current experience： and to use the discrete element method （DEM） in the optimization of deep mine design. For the first time, mining-and rock engineering-will have its own mechanics-based Ulaboratory.＂ This promises to be a major tool in future planning for effective mining at depth. The paper concludes with a discussion of an opportunity to demonstrate the application of DEM and SRM procedures as a laboratory, by back-analysis of mining methods used over the 80-year history of the Mount Lvell Copper Mine in Tasmania.
基金supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 50879041 and 50939004)the National Hi-Tech Research and Development Program of China (Grant No.2011BAD25B05)
文摘HDS-SPAC,a new soil-plant-atmosphere continuum(SPAC) model,is developed for simulating water and heat transfer in SPAC.The model adopts a recently proposed hybrid dual source approach for soil evaporation and plant transpiration partitioning.For the above-ground part,a layer approach is used to partition available energy and calculate aerodynamic resistances,while a patch approach is used to derive sensible heat and latent heat fluxes from the two sources(soil and vegetation).For the below-ground part,soil water and heat dynamics are described by the mixed form of Richards equation,and the soil heat conductivity equation,respectively.These two parts are coupled through ground heat flux for energy transfer,root-zone water potential-dependent stomatal resistance,and surface soil water potential-dependent evaporation for water transfer.Evaporation is calculated from the water potential gradient at soil-atmosphere interface and aerodynamic resistance,and transpiration is determined using a Jarvis-type function linking soil water availability and atmospheric conditions.Some other processes,such as canopy interception and deep percolation,are also considered in the HDS-SPAC model.The hybrid dual-source approach allows HDS-SPAC to simulate heat and water transfer in an ecosystem with a large range of vegetation cover change temporally or spatially.The model was tested with observations at a wheat field in North China Plain over a time of three months covering both wet and dry conditions.The fractional crop covers change from 30% to over 90%.The results indicated that the HDS-SPAC model can estimate actual evaporation and transpiration partitioning and soil water content and temperature over the whole range of tested vegetation coverage.
