Numerical modeling of groundwater flow at a coal exploration site in Eskişehir - Turkey

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Tezin Türü: Yüksek Lisans

Tezin Yürütüldüğü Kurum: Orta Doğu Teknik Üniversitesi, Mühendislik Fakültesi, Jeoloji Mühendisliği Bölümü, Türkiye

Tezin Onay Tarihi: 2016

Öğrenci: HATİCE KILIÇ

Danışman: HASAN YAZICIGİL

Özet:

Numerical groundwater models are useful tools for the evaluation of the complex groundwater systems in the pre-feasibility phase of the mining activities. They can be used to simulate three-dimensional groundwater system and its interaction with these activities. The purpose of this study is to develop conceptual and numerical models of the groundwater flow and evaluate the impact of preliminary dewatering of a coal exploration site in Eskişehir, Turkey. In this study, conceptual model including calculations of hydrologic-hydrogeological budgets were developed at the first stage. Then, groundwater flow regime was modeled and calibrated under steady state conditions by a three-dimensional finite difference model, namely MODFLOW SURFACT. After conducting sensitivity analyses, calibrated model was used to predict the quantity of inflow to preliminary designs of the underground coal panels. During this process, effect of no flow boundary condition at the northwestern part of the study area on dewatering was also analyzed. For the impact assessment, drawdown maps and the groundwater budgets calculated after dewatering simulations were evaluated. These simulation results indicate that the average groundwater inflows are about 129.72 L/s and 33.08 L/s to the deeper and shallower panels, respectively. Although most of the pumping wells will not be significantly affected by these simulations, decrease in the amounts of baseflow to Porsuk Stream and discharge from the springs-captages is expected.