No abstract

A good understanding of the pore water pressure developments within the hydraulic fill stope and the discharge through the drain is essential for improving the designs of barricades and the safety in the mines. A finite difference software FLAC was used to study the drainage and pore water pressure developments within a two dimensional rectangular stope with a single drain at the bottom. Using the method of fragment, a simple solution was proposed for determining the discharge and the maximum pore water pressure within the stope, when the height of water is greater than the width of the stope. The predictions are within 1% of those obtained from FLAC.

Permeability is one of the most important parameters in the design of hydraulic backfilling of mine stopes. A simple and reproducible method was developed for preparing reconstituted hydraulic fill sample in the laboratory, that is representative of the hydraulic fill in the mine stope, replicating the slurry sedimentation process taking place in the mine. Constant head and falling head permeability tests were carried out on the samples, giving consistent results. A brick permeameter was developed to study the flow characteristics of the porous barricade bricks under one-dimensional flow, simulating the flow conditions in the mine. Three different methods were used to determine the permeability of the brick and the results showed very good agreement. This is the first rational attempt to measure the permeability of the porous barricade bricks that are used to close the horizontal access drives in the mines, thus retaining the hydraulic fill. The measurements show that the permeability of the barricade brick is about two to three orders of magnitude greater than that of the hydraulic fill.

No abstract

No abstract