Real Time Monitoring of Volumetric Water Content in Reclaimed Mine Waste Using Cone Penetration – Time Domain Reflectometry

Spencer Chuhaniuk, Lee Barbour

In the proceedings of: GeoOttawa 2017: 70th Canadian Geotechnical Conference; 12th joint with IAH-CNC

Session: Mining - Reclamation and Covers I

ABSTRACT: The purpose of this project is to undertake field trials of a sensor to measure deep (up to 10 m) volumetric water content profiles through reclaimed mine waste using a new time domain reflectometry (TDR) component added to conventional geotechnical cone penetration testing instrumentation (CPT). TDR uses changes in the dielectric constant of the soil to measure changes in volumetric water content. The CPT-TDR provides the opportunity to measure the spatial variability in stored water volume over large areas of reclaimed mine waste (i.e., soil covers placed over tailings or overburden). In this study, a prototype CPT-TDR probe was tested under field conditions on a reclaimed tailings sand dyke. It is expected that the CPT-TDR probe could be utilized by industry to evaluate the performance of mine reclamation covers. R…SUM… Le but de ce projet est dÕeffectuer des essais sur le terrain avec un capteur pour mesurer les profils de teneur volum”trique en eau en profondeur (jusquÕ‹ 10 m) ‹ travers des d”chets miniers r”cup”r”s en utilisant un nouveau composant de r”flectom”trie ‹ dimension temporelle (RDT) ajout” ‹ lÕinstrumentation g”otechnique conventionnelle pour les essais de p”n”tration au cŽne (CPT). La r”flectom”trie ‹ dimension temporelle utilise les changements dans la constante di”lectrique du sol pour mesurer les changements en teneur volum”trique en eau. Cette m”thode CPT- RDT permet de mesurer la variabilit” spatiale du volume dÕeau entrepos” dans de grandes zones de d”chets miniers r”cup”r”s (ex : couvertures du sol au-dessus de r”sidus ou de monticules). Dans cette ”tude, une sonde prototype CPT-RDT a ”t” test”e dans des conditions r”elles sur une digue de sable de r”sidus miniers r”cup”r”s. Il est pr”vu que cette sonde CPT-RDT puisse ’tre utilis”e par lÕindustrie pour ”valuer le rendement des couvertures de restauration mini‘re.

Access this article:
Canadian Geotechnical Society members can access to this article, along with all other Canadian Geotechnical Conference proceedings, in the Member Area. Conference proceedings are also available in many libraries.

Cite this article:
Spencer Chuhaniuk; Lee Barbour (2017) Real Time Monitoring of Volumetric Water Content in Reclaimed Mine Waste Using Cone Penetration – Time Domain Reflectometry in GEO2017. Ottawa, Ontario: Canadian Geotechnical Society.

@article{geo2017Paper727,author = Spencer Chuhaniuk; Lee Barbour,title = Real Time Monitoring of Volumetric Water Content in Reclaimed Mine Waste Using Cone Penetration – Time Domain Reflectometry,year = 2017}