Influence of drain hole inclination on drainage effectiveness of coal open pit mine slope

Abstract

Drain hole has an important role to reduce groundwater table on a slope of coalopen pit mine. Groundwater condition on acoal open pit mine slope with a homogeneous groundwater flow media is highly dependent on the type of lithology and the groundwater bearing-rocks. The drain hole on acoal open pit mine slope is very influential on the water discharge and the length of the drain hole. This paper presents a discussion on the effect of drain holeinstallation with an inclination angle of 65° and 90° on the discharge and drain hole length. The results show that the drain hole with an angle of 65° results in greater groundwater discharge than the 90° angle. In addition, the drain hole with inclination angle of 65° is shorter than that of the drain holeinstalled with an inclination angle of 90°, thus reducing the operating costs of the open pit mine slope drainages.