A pressure pulse is being applied to the tunnel boundary with a frequency of 4 Hz over tens of milliseconds. Quiet (i.e., viscous) boundaries have been applied to all but the top of the model, which remains a free surface.
As well as flow through joints, 3DEC 5.2 is capable of simulating fluid flow through the blocks or the matrix (i.e., between the joints). It is assumed that the blocks represent a saturated, permeable solid, such as soil or fractured rock mass.
This tutorial will guide you through the main steps required to build a simple PFC model with 30 interacting balls in a box using the linear contact model.
Numerical models are now used routinely to predict ground-water inflows to both surface and underground mines and to help design dewatering systems.
A 3D groundwater flow model was constructed using MINEDW [1] to simulate pore pressure at the Chuquicamata open pit mine slope in Chile.
Itasca Denver, Inc., (Itasca) in conjunction with Newmont Mining Corporation (NMC) developed a numerical model to estimate gold (Au) production from NMC’s heap-leach operations.