Technische Hochschule Georg Agricola (THGA), Forschungszentrum Nachbergbau, Herner Straße 45, 44787 Bochum, Germany, ORCID: 0000-0001-6019-9945.
South African Research Chair for Acid Mine Drainage Treatment, Tshwane University of Technology (TUT), Private Bag X680, Pretoria 0001, South Africa, ORCID: 0000-0003-2035-1863.
Water Res. 2022 May 1;214:118033. doi: 10.1016/j.watres.2021.118033. Epub 2022 Jan 2.
Layering of water bodies with different physico-chemical properties is called stratification. This physical effect is known from lakes or oceans but also occurs in flooded underground mines and has been studied in the past. This review gives a summary of their investigation methods, flow dynamics, stratification development and breakdown. Furthermore, the barrier effect of stratification is discussed, meaning that less mineralized water bodies (CF water bodies) on the top are separated from higher mineralized water bodies (WM water bodies) in the lower parts of the mine. This separation causes less mineralized water to discharge from the flooded mine and mine water treatment can be reduced or omitted. Various options to study mine water stratification will be discussed, thereunder tracer tests, camera-aided depth profile measurements and depth dependant mine water sampling. Studies about free convection and natural stratification as well as those about using artificial stratification to encapsulate the lower quality water in the deeper mine parts will be presented. No forecasting tool for the existence or development of stratification in flooded mines was found in the literature. References and a discussion about the long-term stability of the stratification and its potential implementation will be given. The conclusions show that precise predictions of mine water stratification are currently not possible in all detail, but wherever stratification occurs, it is mostly stable over a longer period of time as the density difference between the CF and WM layers prevents their mixing.
水体的物理化学性质分层称为分层。这种物理效应在湖泊或海洋中是已知的，但也存在于淹没的地下矿山中，并在过去进行了研究。本文综述了其调查方法、流动动力学、分层发展和分层破坏。此外，还讨论了分层的阻隔效应，即顶部的贫化水体（CF 水体）与下部的高矿化水体（WM 水体）相分离。这种分离导致从被淹没的矿山中排放出较少的贫化水，从而可以减少或省略矿山水处理。本文将讨论各种研究矿山水分层的选择方案，包括示踪剂测试、摄像机辅助深度剖面测量和深度相关的矿山水采样。将介绍关于自由对流和自然分层的研究，以及使用人工分层将低质量水封装在深部矿山的研究。在文献中没有发现用于预测淹没矿山中分层存在或发展的预测工具。本文将提供参考文献和关于分层的长期稳定性及其潜在应用的讨论。结论表明，目前在所有细节上都无法精确预测矿山水的分层，但只要分层存在，它通常在较长时间内保持稳定，因为 CF 和 WM 层之间的密度差异阻止了它们的混合。
