Analysis of Pluviograms Recorded in the Area of a Phosphogypsum Heap at Wiślinka, Poland

Abstract

Abstract The paper is devoted to the long-term project concerning monitoring and stability analysis of a 40 m high phosphogypsum heap located at Wiślinka, Poland. The research presented in the paper focused on collecting and processing rainfall data, which subsequently allows us to perform numerical simulation of rainfall impact on heap’s behaviour. Such analysis requires time history of rainfall intensity, that is recorded by an automatic precipitation station. Since this is not common monitoring equipment, the characteristics of the station installed in the immediate vicinity of the heap are presented, and the data obtained in two experiments conducted in the laboratory are discussed. The analysis revealed that di erences between introduced and measured total rain are as large as 10% for very heavy rains. Moreover, the recorded maximum rainfall intensity often includes errors. The data processing procedure to obtain time history of rainfall intensity is presented on the basis of data collected in the first half of the hydrological year 2023 (the first period of the station’s operation). The total precipitation registered was 107 mm, and the maximum daily rain was only 26 mm. However, first single and multi-stage rainfall models for the Wiślinka region that would be applied into numerical simulations are presented.