Matthew Otwinowski
Scaling Analysis Of Acid Rock Drainage
5.0 PRACTICAL IMPLICATIONS OF PHYSICO-CHEMICAL SCALING
RELATIONS
Scaling formulae derived in the Chapter 4 provide information about the relative importance of the chemical and physical factors responsible for ARD. The scaling relations can be used as a preliminary estimate of the expected ARD. In this section we demonstrate the use of the dimensionless parameter δ for different sets of entry data. We could not find in the literature complete entry data which would characterize any particular existing waste rock pile. Therefore we will use entry values coming from different sources, including values measured during small- and meso-scale laboratory experiments and field tests. The purpose of this chapter is to demonstrate the potential practical value of the scaling relations for different hypothetical scenarios. The more detailed analysis of expected acid concentrations in the effluent and a full validation of the model is left to a future study in which more realistic boundary conditions and the water transport will be included.
Scaling formulae derived in the Chapter 4 provide information about the relative importance of the chemical and physical factors responsible for ARD. The scaling relations can be used as a preliminary estimate of the expected ARD. In this section we demonstrate the use of the dimensionless parameter δ for different sets of entry data. We could not find in the literature complete entry data which would characterize any particular existing waste rock pile. Therefore we will use entry values coming from different sources, including values measured during small- and meso-scale laboratory experiments and field tests. The purpose of this chapter is to demonstrate the potential practical value of the scaling relations for different hypothetical scenarios. The more detailed analysis of expected acid concentrations in the effluent and a full validation of the model is left to a future study in which more realistic boundary conditions and the water transport will be included.
Most field data have been collected for waste rock piles in which convective oxygen transport played a significant role. It is known, however, that the convective air flow should be minimized and this can be done by using covers and placing waste rock piles on impermeable linings. Thus the results of this Chapter apply to properly designed piles with low porosity value and piles covered by low permeability covers. To our knowledge, this is the first study which uses the realistic chemical kinetics as a part of the physico-chemical model.
No comments:
Post a Comment