Tailing migration though geomembrane holes

以安全和环境可接受的方式管理矿山尾矿（资源开采后产生的废物）对于加拿大经济中这一重要部门的持续活动至关重要，该部门在2014年价值570亿美元。尾矿中污染物长期排放到环境中的情况越来越需要评估。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垫在减少尾矿向周围环境的地下渗透方面的显着好处。工业资金被用于进行首次同类实验，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资金被用于进行测量，以调查当地土壤的行为和详细的数值分析，以了解测量的流动。工程师们现在可以使用这些新知识来计算实际情况下的泄漏，其中尾矿和下伏地基土壤之间的过滤器相容性是确定的。工业界现在需要知道，在更多的实际情况下，当一些土壤颗粒从尾矿中迁移到地基土中时，可能会发生什么。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，在常规过滤理论的“灰色区域”内，尾矿细粒通过土工膜孔的部分迁移是否会导致尾矿的局部稳定或灾难性损失？NSERC的资金将用于：提供更详细的细粒迁移机制（很可能与传统的过滤理论不同，因为土工膜缺陷附近的流动模式更复杂，渗流速度变化较大），量化尾矿细粒迁移到地基土的程度，并检查局部但稳定的细粒迁移如何影响泄漏率。新的研究将使矿山尾矿管理更加有效和经济的环境保护，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.