M. Javadi
PhD Candidate, Faculty of Mining & Metallurgical Engineering, Amirkabir University of Technology,
Tehran, Iran
M. Sharifzadeh
Asst.Prof., Faculty of Mining & Metallurgical Engineering, Amirkabir University of Technology,
Tehran, Iran
ABSTRACT:
Control of water inflow into underground excavations during and after construction is a necessary
operation due to the destructive influences such as adverse environmental impacts, mechanical instability,
and impairing the project schedule. This paper discusses the applicability of DFN simulation for possibility
assessment of water inflow into underground excavation in heterogeneous fractured rock masses. This
process was performed using the statistics of field data of fracture geometry and FNETF computational code.
The main input data for analysis were captured from site investigation and measurements in Siah Bisheh
pumped storage project at the north of Iran. The powerhouse and transformer caverns were separated to
different parts and the flow out from the rock into each part was individually measured during and after
caverns construction. The possibility of ground water inflow into powerhouse and transformer caverns was
estimated using percolation behaviour of DFN realizations and compared with observed one. Simulation
results indicate that in order to come up with percolated caverns and inflow possibility, at least about 1-3% of
fractures in the whole domain should be hydraulically active. In addition, maximum 38.6% of the total existing
fractures in the domain contributed to flow. Comparison between simulation result and field observation
indicates that, the DFN model predicted more possibility of water inflow into caverns than observed one.
Since there is an appropriate correspondence between simulated and observed inflow possibilities in the
less heterogeneous geological condition, existing impermeable zones around caverns can be considered as
the one of the important reason of the overestimation of inflow possibility.
KEYWORDS: water inflow, possibility assessment, distinct fracture network, percolation.
1 INTRODUCTION
Ground water inflow causes several difficulties such
as unsafely, impairing the project schedule,
mechanical instability, equipment damaging and
altering the groundwater regime as well in the
construction phase of any underground excavations
as in the operation phase. To evaluate the related
problems, the possibility and the probable water
inflow into excavation must be somehow predicted
in advance. Successful predictions can be of help in
reducing the total construction cost and
environmental impacts.
In many geological structures, the matrix
permeability is negligible compared to permeability
of fractures and rock mass hydraulic behaviour is
controlled
by
fractures.
In
such
highly
heterogeneous fractured media, fluid flow takes
place along preferential pathways within the
fractures (Odling et al., 1999; Hitchmough et al.,
2007) as field experiments provide indirect evidence
of these preferential pathways (Wang et al., 1999,
Hsieh and Neuman, 1985; Neuman and Depner,
M. Javadi, M. Sharifzadeh
22nd WORLD MINING CONGRESS & EXPO 11-16 September 2011 / ISTANBUL
M1
Fracture class
M2
M3
M4
Relative frequency
37.8
23.6
11.8
26.7
Fisher constant
Fracture density
(m-2)
Mean trace length
(m)
Trace length Std.
12.34
2.64
16.3
----*
0.20
0.12
0.06
0.14
0.93
0.93
1.02
1.00
0.44
0.46
0.42
0.42
M. Javadi, M. Sharifzadeh
22nd WORLD MINING CONGRESS & EXPO 11-16 September 2011 / ISTANBUL
1359
501.2
307.5
TC percolated
1359
90
564.4
266
M. Javadi, M. Sharifzadeh
5 CONCLUSION
In this paper, the applicability of DFN realizations for
possibility assessment of water inflow into
underground
excavation
constructing
in
heterogeneous fractured rock masses is discussed
throughout near-field scale domain. A new
computational code so-called FNETF has been
developed for generating DFN generation and
regularization. The main input data for analysis are
captured from site investigations and measurements
in Siah Bisheh pumped storage project at the North
of Iran. Due to the negligible matrix permeability of
rock mass surrounding powerhouse and transformer
caverns, DFN model was selected to assess
possibility of water inflow. The PHC and TC were
separated to different parts and the flow out from
the rock into each part was individually measured
during and after caverns construction. The DFN
22nd WORLD MINING CONGRESS & EXPO 11-16 September 2011 / ISTANBUL
M. Javadi, M. Sharifzadeh
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