scholarly journals Investigating the Influence of Structure and Heterogeneity in Waste Rock Piles on Mass Loading Rates—A Reactive Transport Modeling Study

2021 ◽  
Vol 3 ◽  
Author(s):  
Katherine E. Raymond ◽  
Nicolas Seigneur ◽  
Danyang Su ◽  
K. Ulrich Mayer

Placement methods and material availability during waste rock pile (WRP) construction may create significant heterogeneities in physical and geochemical parameters (such as grain size, permeability, mineralogy, and reactivity) and influence the internal pile structure. Due to the enormous scale of WRPs, it is difficult to capture the influence of heterogeneities on mine drainage composition and evolution. Although laboratory- or field-scale experimental studies have provided much insight, it is often challenging to translate these results to full scale WRPs. This study uses a numerical modeling approach to investigate the influence of physical and chemical heterogeneities, structure, and scale on the release of acid rock drainage (ARD) through 2D reactive transport simulations. Specifically, the sensitivity of drainage quality to parameters including grain size distribution, sulfide mineral weathering rates, abundance and distribution of primary minerals, and pile structure as a function of construction methods are investigated. The geochemical model includes sulfide oxidation, pH buffering by calcite dissolution, and ferrihydrite and gypsum as secondary phases. Simulation results indicate that the implications of heterogeneity and construction method are scale-dependent; when grain size distribution trends observed in a pile's core are applied to the entirety of a pile, results between push- and end-dumping methods vary substantially—however, predicted drainage for different construction methods become more similar when features such as traffic surfaces, structural variation, and multiple benches are also considered. For all scales and construction methods investigated, simulated results demonstrate that pile heterogeneity and structure decrease peak mass loading rates 2 to 3-fold, but cause prolonged ARD release compared to the homogeneous case. These findings have implications for the economics of planning water treatment facilities for life of mine and closure operations.

2021 ◽  
Vol 6 (4) ◽  
pp. 259-266
Author(s):  
S. O. Markov ◽  
E. V. Murko ◽  
F. S. Nepsha

Grain size distribution as a structural characteristic of waste rock and bulk masses in the course of mining and construction works acquires quantitative values in the process of rock blasting and hauling of rock mass. Such physical-mechanical and structural-textural parameters of a rock mass, as the ultimate strength of rocks and rock mass, fracturing, diameter of the natural rock jointing, have a significant impact on the blasted rock mass grain size distribution. On the other hand, such characteristics as stability, permeability of waste rock masses largely depend on the lithology and grain size distribution of the loosened rocks composing waste rock dumps and their height distribution within a dump. The paper describes the findings of the study of the grain size distribution of waste rock masses of Kuzbass coal strip mines and the features of its spatial variations within the masses. The textures of the bulk masses and physical and technical properties of the stacked rocks were studied both at the Kuzbass waste rock sites and in laboratory conditions. The grain size distribution of the fine lump part of the dumps with the lump size up to 50 mm was investigated by sieve method according to GOST 12536–2014, and the medium and large lump part was studied using oblique photoplanimetry. The field observations showed that the bottom part of the rock dumps, dumped by peripheral bulldozer or excavator methods was composed of coarse fraction with average lump size of: d<sub>cr</sub> = 0.8–1 m, while the middle part, of rock lumps of d<sub>cr</sub> = 0.4–0.6 m, and the upper part, mainly of fine fraction with lump size of less than 0.1 m. The ratio of length, width, and thickness of the blasted rock lumps was 1:0.85:0.8, which corresponds to elongated-flattened shape of the lumps. This requires significant number of coordinates for describing the lump positions in the rock mass, as well as taking into account the moments of inertia when modeling the motion of such lumps until they reach a stable position. Up-to-date non-commercial or commercial software and corresponding hardware can be used to take into account non-isometric shape of the lumps when modeling their motion.


1970 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. K69-K73 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. Reinbold ◽  
H. Hoffmann

Materials ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (11) ◽  
pp. 2849
Author(s):  
Marcin Jan Dośpiał

This paper presents domain and structure studies of bonded magnets made from nanocrystalline Nd-(Fe, Co)-B powder. The structure studies were investigated using scanning electron microscopy (SEM), high-resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM), Mössbauer spectroscopy and X-ray diffractometry. On the basis of performed qualitative and quantitative phase composition studies, it was found that investigated alloy was mainly composed of Nd2(Fe-Co)14B hard magnetic phase (98 vol%) and a small amount of Nd1.1Fe4B4 paramagnetic phase (2 vol%). The best fit of grain size distribution was achieved for the lognormal function. The mean grain size determined from transmission electron microscopy (TEM) images on the basis of grain size distribution and diffraction pattern using the Bragg equation was about ≈130 nm. HRTEM images showed that over-stoichiometric Nd was mainly distributed on the grain boundaries as a thin amorphous border of 2 nm in width. The domain structure was investigated using a scanning electron microscope and metallographic light microscope, respectively, by Bitter and Kerr methods, and by magnetic force microscopy. Domain structure studies revealed that the observed domain structure had a labyrinth shape, which is typically observed in magnets, where strong exchange interactions between grains are present. The analysis of the domain structure in different states of magnetization revealed the dynamics of the reversal magnetization process.


Author(s):  
Anna Dobkowska ◽  
Boguslawa Adamczyk – Cieślak ◽  
Dariusz Kuc ◽  
Eugeniusz Hadasik ◽  
Tomasz Płociński ◽  
...  

Author(s):  
Mo Ji ◽  
Martin Strangwood ◽  
Claire Davis

AbstractThe effects of Nb addition on the recrystallization kinetics and the recrystallized grain size distribution after cold deformation were investigated by using Fe-30Ni and Fe-30Ni-0.044 wt pct Nb steel with comparable starting grain size distributions. The samples were deformed to 0.3 strain at room temperature followed by annealing at 950 °C to 850 °C for various times; the microstructural evolution and the grain size distribution of non- and fully recrystallized samples were characterized, along with the strain-induced precipitates (SIPs) and their size and volume fraction evolution. It was found that Nb addition has little effect on recrystallized grain size distribution, whereas Nb precipitation kinetics (SIP size and number density) affects the recrystallization Avrami exponent depending on the annealing temperature. Faster precipitation coarsening rates at high temperature (950 °C to 900 °C) led to slower recrystallization kinetics but no change on Avrami exponent, despite precipitation occurring before recrystallization. Whereas a slower precipitation coarsening rate at 850 °C gave fine-sized strain-induced precipitates that were effective in reducing the recrystallization Avrami exponent after 50 pct of recrystallization. Both solute drag and precipitation pinning effects have been added onto the JMAK model to account the effect of Nb content on recrystallization Avrami exponent for samples with large grain size distributions.


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