Numerical analysis of seepage flow characteristic of collapse column under the influence of mining

Based on the importance of fractured rock mass seepage research, in order to analyze seepage flow characteristics of collapse column under the influence of mining, a method by embedding fractured rock mass flow solid coupling relationship into FLAC3D internal flow models is presented according to fluid-solid coupling theory and strength criterion. A calculation model of numerical analysis was established, and the influences of mining pressure and plastic damage to pore water pressure and seepage vector change rule were studied. The results show that collapse column is the main channel of confined water seepage upward. The impact is not big when the workface is away from the collapse column. But when the workface is nearing a collapse column, there will be a seepage channel on a side near the workface, in which seepage vector and head are comparatively large. With workface pushing through collapse column, the seepage channel transfers to the other side of the column. In addition, when the plastic damage area within the collapse column breaks through, a "pipeline flow" will be formed within the column, and seepage field will change remarkably and the possibility of water bursting will be greater.

Microscale mechanism of tailing thickening in metal mines

Water-locking flocs formed by ultrafine tailings particles will damage the thickener underflow concentration in the thickening process during paste preparation.The relationship between the mesostructure and seepage characteristics of tail mortar is typically ignored when investigating the deep dehydration stage.A shearing seepage test of an unclassified tailing-sedimentation bed was performed with copper tailings,and the morphology and geometric distribution of micropores were analyzed via X-ray computed tomography.Moreover,the shearing evolution of the micropore structure and seepage channel was investigated to evaluate the dewatering performance of underflow slurry using a three-dimensional reconstruction approach.The results show that porosity decreases considerably under shearing.The connected-pore ratio and the average radius of the throat channel reach peak values of 0.79 and 31.38μm,respectively,when shearing is applied for 10 min.However,the reverse seepage velocity and absolute permeability in the bed decrease to various extents after shearing.Meanwhile,the maximum flow rate reaches 1.537μm/s and the absolute permeability increases by 14.16%.Shearing alters the formation process and the pore structure of the seepage channel.Isolated pores connect to the surrounding flocs to form branch channels,which then become the main seepage channel and create the dominant water-seepage flow channel.

Numerical Simulation Study on the Effect of Horizontal Well Reservoir Stimulation for Gas Hydrate Production

A new gas hydrate reservoir stimulation method of in-situ fracturing with transient heating is proposed, in line with analysis of the technological bottlenecks faced by marine gas hydrate production. This method injects the developed chemical reagents into a hydrate reservoir through hydraulic fracturing, releasing heat during the chemical reaction to increase the hydrate decomposition rate. The chemical reaction product furthermore has a honeycomb structure to support fractures and increase reservoir permeability. Based on the geological model of natural gas hydrate in the South China Sea, three development methods are simulated to evaluate hydrate production capacity, consisting of horizontal well, fractured horizontal well and in-situ fracturing with transient heating well. Compared with the horizontal well, the simulation results show that the cumulative gas production of the fractured horizontal well in one year is 7 times that of the horizontal well, while the cumulative gas production of in-situ fracturing with transient heating well is 12 times that of the horizontal well, which significantly improves daily efficiency and cumulative gas production. In addition, the variation patterns of hydrate saturation and temperature-pressure fields with production time for the three exploitation plans are presented, it being found that three sensitive parameters of fracture conductivity, fracture half-length and fracture number are positively correlated with hydrate production enhancement. Through the simulations, basic data and theoretical support for the optimization of gas hydrate reservoir stimulation scheme has been provided.