Effect of seepage flow through frozen wall on brine temperature in freeze pipes

One of the indirect signs of the required thickness and integrity gained by the frozen wall in brine freezing of rocks and soils is the temperature difference of 1–2 °С between the cooling agent (brine) in the direct and return brine pipes. At the same time, intense mass exchange processes in rock mass can make the required temperature difference unattainable. For instance, at sufficiently heavy seepage flow of groundwater at certain depth levels, some rock zones may remain unfrozen between the neighbor freeze pipes. Water will seep through these zones, and generation of a solid frozen wall will take much longer time or will never happen at all. Prompt detection of such local discontinuities caused in the frozen wall by unfrozen seepage zones between some freeze pipes is critical from the viewpoint of safety of further sinking under shelter of the frozen wall. In the meanwhile, the current practices of frozen wall monitoring are at loss when detecting local discontinuities. This article offers a theoretical examination of a possible method for the indirect detection of discontinuities in frozen walls by the return brine temperatures measured at the outlets of different freeze pipes. The heat flow required to be transferred to a freeze pipe to make the brine temperature ‘response’ at the freeze pipe outlet exceed the preset sensitivity of the temperature sensor is evaluated. The evaluation was performed as a case-study of an actual potash mine under construction in Belarus.

Semin M. A., Bogomyagkov A. V., Pugin A. V. Effect of seepage flow through frozen wall on brine temperature in freeze pipes. MIAB. Mining Inf. Anal. Bull. 2022;(3):60-77. [In Russ]. DOI: 10.25018/0236_1493_2022_3_0_60.

The study was supported by the Ministry of Science and Higher Education in the Perm Krai, Agreement No. S-26/563.

M.A. Semin¹, Cand. Sci. (Eng.), Researcher, e-mail: seminma@inbox.ru, Scopus ID 56462570900,
A.V. Bogomyagkov¹, Junior Researcher, e-mail: bavaerolog@gmail.com, Scopus ID 57218893401,
A.V. Pugin¹, Cand. Sci. (Phys. Mathem.), Researcher, e-mail: lyosha.p@gmail.com, Scopus ID 15729767700,
¹ Mining Institute of Ural Branch, Russian Academy of Sciences, 614007, Perm, Russia.

M.A. Semin, e-mail: seminma@inbox.ru.

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