Evaluation of Long-Term Tightness of the Coal Pillar Dam of Underground Reservoir and Protection Countermeasures

Abstract

The coal mine underground reservoir is an effective facility for mine groundwater utilization in water-deficient and ecologically fragile areas. Usually, the artificial reserved coal pillar is used as the dam of underground reservoir, and little research has been done on its tightness performance. Comsol software is used to simulate the leakage of underground reservoirs in Shendong area, in the western part of China, and the long-term tightness of coal pillar dam under different operation conditions is evaluated. The results show that: (1) When the underground reservoir is not connected with the upper water system, the coal pillar dam has good tightness performance. When they are connected, the leakage of reservoir increased due to the raised water level, and the deeper the burial depth, the greater the leakage amount. (2) When reservoir is pumping and storing water, the leakage is only half of that under constant water pressure storage, indicating that this operation mode is beneficial to the long-term tightness of a coal pillar dam. (3) With the increase of the permeability of a coal pillar dam, the leakage will be aggravated. It is suggested that the permeability of a coal pillar dam should not exceed 1 × 10−15 m2. (4) The tightness of the coal pillar dam damaged by brine immersion is greatly reduced. With only 3 m of soaking damage distance, the total leakage is twice that of the undamaged one. For a coal pillar dam with poor tightness, some protection countermeasures are proposed to reduce the reservoir water level or improve the anti-seepage performance of a coal pillar dam, so as to ensure the long-term tightness of the dam. This research can provide theoretical support and technical guidance for evaluating the seepage stability of a coal pillar dam in an underground reservoir and strengthening its seepage control.