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Concurrent Mining During Construction and Water-Filling of a Goaf Groundwater Reservoir in a Coal Mine

Abbau bei gleichzeitiger Entstehung und Auffüllung eines Grundwasserkörpers im Alten Mann

Minería concurrente durante la construcción y llenado de agua de un depósito de agua subterránea en una mina de carbón

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Abstract

Coal mining has aggravated water scarcity in the arid areas of northwestern China. Concurrent aquifer drainage, mining, and water storage is proposed, using a goaf groundwater reservoir (GGWR) to preserve the area’s fragile ecosystem. By continuously draining the overlying aquifer of the working face and simultaneously storing water in the goaf while the working face is mined, this technology can maintain the storage capacity of the GGWR without jeopardizing mine safety. The drainage process was simulated, based on mining conditions of the 11201 working face in the Yuandatan coal mine, to investigate how water pressure variations in the overlying aquifer would affect GGWR construction. Then, two drainage borehole arrangements were simulated. The research demonstrated that the resulting drainage intensity would enable continuous operation of “aquifer drainage-coal mining-water storage”, and that the design satisfies the in-situ drainage and storage requirements. Therefore, concurrent construction and water-filling of the GGWR is feasible.

Zusammenfassung

Der Kohlenbergbau hat den Wassermangel in den ariden Bereichen Nordchinas verschärft. Parallel sind die Entwässerung des Grundwasserkörpers, der Abbau und die Wasserspeicherung unter Verwendung des Alten Mannes als Grundwasserreservoir (GGWR) zur Schonung des fragilen Ökosystems des Gebiets geplant. Durch kontinuierliche Entwässerung des hangenden Aquifers über der Abbaufront und gleichzeitige Speicherung der gewonnen Wässer im Alten Mann während die Abbaufront vorangetrieben wird, kann diese Vorgangsweise die Speicherkapazität des GGWR erhalten ohne die Sicherheit beim Abbau zu gefährden. Der Entwässerungsprozess wurde auf Basis der Bedingungen des Abbaus 11201 in der Yuandatan Kohlengrube nachgebildet, um zu untersuchen wie Wasserdruckveränderungen im hangenden Aquifer die Entstehung des GGWR beeinflusst. Dann wurden zwei Entwässerungsbohrlochanordnungen simuliert. Die Untersuchung zeigte dass die sich ergebende Entwässerungsintensität den kontinuierlichen Betrieb des Systems „Aquiferentwässerung – Kohlenabbau – Wasserspeicherung“ ermöglicht und die Auslegung die in-situ Entwässerungs- und Speichererfordernisse erfüllt. Daher ist die gleichzeitige Nutzung des alten Mannes als GGWR während des Abbaubetriebes möglich.

Resumen

La minería del carbón ha agravado la escasez de agua en las áreas áridas del noroeste de China. Se propone el drenaje concurrente del acuífero, la extracción y el almacenamiento de agua, utilizando un reservorio de aguas subterráneas (GGWR) para preservar el frágil ecosistema del área. Por drenaje continuo del acuífero que cubre la cara de trabajo y el almacenamiento simultáneo de agua en el pozo durante el trabajo minero, esta tecnología puede mantener la capacidad de almacenamiento del GGWR sin afectar la seguridad de la mina. El proceso de drenaje fue simulado, basado en las condiciones mineras de la cara de trabajo 11201 en la mina de carbón de Yuandatan, para investigar cómo las variaciones de presión del agua en el acuífero suprayacente afectarían la construcción del GGWR. Luego, se simularon dos arreglos de pozo de drenaje. La investigación demostró que la intensidad de drenaje resultante permitiría una operación continua de "drenaje de acuíferos-extracción de carbón-almacenamiento de agua", y que el diseño satisface los requisitos de drenaje y almacenamiento in situ. Por lo tanto, la construcción simultánea y el llenado de agua del GGWR es factible.

摘要

在中国西北干旱地区,煤炭开采加剧了水资源短缺。为保护该地区脆弱的生态环境,提出了“疏水-采煤-储水”并行作业的采空区地下水库构建与充水技术。该技术对工作面上覆含水层进行连续疏排,同时将疏排水存储于采空区,能够保证采空区地下水库储水能力及安全开采。基于袁大滩煤矿11201工作面开采条件,模拟研究了上覆含水层疏水过程中的水压变化对采空区地下水库构建的影响。对两种疏水强度钻孔布置进行模拟,研究发现疏水强度保证了“疏水-采煤-储水”并行作业的连续性,设计满足现场疏水和储水要求。因此,并行作业的采空区地下水库构建与充水技术是可行的。

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Acknowledgements

This work was financed by the National Natural Science Foundation of China with grant 51674247. The authors furthermore thank the anonymous reviewers and related editors who have significantly enhanced the quality of this paper.

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Correspondence to Yu Wu.

Electronic supplementary material

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Supplementary Fig. 1 Boundary and initial conditions of the models (PDF 22 KB)

10230_2018_537_MOESM2_ESM.pdf

Supplementary Fig. 2 Water pressure distribution before the damage of the aquifer is shown at different drainage time (a 1 day, b 3 days, c 7 days, d 11 days) (PDF 15932 KB)

Supplementary material 3 (PDF 13725 KB)

Supplementary material 4 (PDF 12287 KB)

Supplementary material 5 (PDF 10966 KB)

10230_2018_537_MOESM6_ESM.pdf

Supplementary Fig. 3 Water pressure distribution after the damage of the aquifer is shown at different drainage time (a 1 day, b 3 days, c 7 days, d 11 days) (PDF 17231 KB)

Supplementary material 7 (PDF 13945 KB)

Supplementary material 8 (PDF 11219 KB)

Supplementary material 9 (PDF 9081 KB)

Supplementary material 10 (PDF 9081 KB)

Supplementary material 11 (DOCX 17 KB)

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Li, P., Ma, L., Wu, Y. et al. Concurrent Mining During Construction and Water-Filling of a Goaf Groundwater Reservoir in a Coal Mine. Mine Water Environ 37, 763–773 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10230-018-0537-x

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