Abstract
The migration of fracture and leaching solute caused by mining activity is critical to the hydrogeology. To characterize liquid and solid migration in a mining area of intergrown resources, the coordinated mining of coal and uranium was considered, and a physical experiment based on transparent soil was conducted. A well experimental performance of transparent soil composed of paraffin oil, n-tridecane, and silica gel and the leaching solution comprised of saturated oil red O dye was observed for hydrogeology characterization. An “arch-shaped” fracture zone with a maximum height of 90 m above the mined goaf and a “horizontal-shaped” fracture zone with a fractured depth of 9.97–16.09 m in the uranium-bearing layer were observed. The vertical leachate infiltration of 4.83 m was observed in the scenario of uranium mining prior to coal, which is smaller than those in the scenarios of comining of coal and uranium (10.26 m) and coal mining prior to uranium (16.09 m). A slight strata movement below the uranium was observed, and the leaching solution infiltration in the coal mining area was not observed in a short period in the scenario of uranium mining prior to coal; both of those was presented in the scenarios of comining of coal and uranium and coal mining prior to uranium.
Highlights
The natural resource mining of coal, oil, uranium, etc. concerns a series of safety and environmental problems
With the advancement of coal mining, the fracture zone and caving zone could be observed in the sandy mudstone above the coal seam
A “horizontal-shaped” fracture zone was observed in the uranium-bearing layer due to the hydraulic and mechanical fracturing effect
Summary
The natural resource mining of coal, oil, uranium, etc. concerns a series of safety and environmental problems. To investigate the mechanism and characteristics of the geotechnical problems, transparent soil, including a refractive index-matched skeleton and a saturating fluid, has been accepted in the field of physical modeling [6, 7]. The soil skeleton materials and their corresponding fluids, including amorphous silica powder, silica gel, hydrogels, and fused quartz, have been extensively developed to mimic different natural soils [14]. Xu [15] developed the transparent soil, comprising silica gel powder, mineral oil, and n-tridecane, to study the deformation damage mechanism and fracture evolution of the surrounding rock. Wei et al [17] introduced transparent cemented soil as a surrogate for the physical modeling of geotechnical problems. Zhang [18] developed a transparent rock similar material, which was applied in the stress and deformation experiments of the tunnel. Ye [19] conducted a 3D crack
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