Tailing migration though geomembrane holes

以安全和环境可接受的方式管理尾矿（资源开采后产生的废物）对于加拿大经济这一重要部门的持续活动至关重要-2014年价值570亿美元。越来越需要对尾矿污染物长期排放到环境中的情况进行评估。申请人和行业合作伙伴KCB最近的研究-由NSERC支持-证明了使用土工膜衬里在减少尾矿到周围环境的地下渗漏方面的显著益处。工业资金用于进行首次实验，以测量一系列实际条件下的泄漏（通过土工膜孔的流体流动），而NSERC资金用于进行测量，以调查当地土壤行为和详细的数值分析，以了解测量的流量。工程师们现在可以使用这一新知识来计算实际情况下的泄漏，其中尾矿和底层地基土壤之间的过滤器兼容性是确定的。工业界现在需要知道，在许多更实际的情况下，当尾矿中的一些土壤颗粒可能迁移到地基土壤中时，会发生什么情况。拟议的研究将利用行业资金进行全新的实验，以评估尾矿在边缘稳定情况下的流动性;换句话说，在传统过滤理论的“灰色区域”内，尾矿细粉通过土工膜孔的一些迁移是否会导致局部稳定条件或尾矿的灾难性损失？NSERC的资金将用于：提供更详细的深入了解细颗粒迁移的机制（最有可能不同于传统的过滤理论，因为更复杂的流动模式和较大的变化是土工膜缺陷附近的渗透速度），量化尾矿细颗粒迁移到地基土壤中的距离，并检查局部但稳定的细颗粒迁移如何影响渗漏率。新的研究将使尾矿管理更有效，更经济的环境保护，并将为硕士和本科生提供高级培训。

Management of mine tailings (waste generated after resource extraction) in both a safe and environmentally acceptable manner is essential for continued activity in this important sector of Canada's economy-worth $57B in 2014. Increasingly, the long-term discharge of contaminants from the tailings into the environment requires assessment. Recent research by the applicants and industry partner KCB-enabled by NSERC-demonstrated the significant benefit of using a geomembrane liner at reducing subsurface seepage from the tailings into the surrounding environment. Industry funding was used to conduct first-of-their-kind experiments to measure leakage (fluid flow through a hole in the geomembrane) for a range of practical conditions, while NSERC funding was used to conduct measurements to investigate local soil behaviour and detailed numerical analysis to understand the measured flows. Engineers can now use this new knowledge to calculate leakage for practical cases where filter compatibility between the tailings and underlying foundation soil is certain. Industry now needs to know what may happen in the many more practical cases when there may be some migration of soil particles from the tailings into the foundation soil. The proposed research will use industry funding to conduct fundamentally new experiments to assess mobility of tailings for marginally stable cases; in other words, within the "grey-area" of conventional filtration theory, does some migration of tailings fines through the geomembrane hole lead to locally-stable conditions or catastrophic loss of tailings? NSERC funding will be used to: provide more detailed insight into the mechanisms of fines migration (most likely different to conventional filtration theory because of the more complex flow pattern and large variation is seepage velocities near the geomembrane defect), quantify of how far tailing fines migrate into foundation soil, and examine how local but stable fines migration affects the leakage rate. The new research will enable more effective and economical environmental protection for mine tailings management and will provide advanced training for a Masters and an undergraduate student.