Groundwater outbursts from faults above a confined aquifer in the coal mining

Groundwater outburst has an impartible relationship with geological structures such as water-conducting faults, which are widely distributed in north China. In order to study the seepage property and mechanism of water outburst from the faults above a confined aquifer in the coal mining, the simulation model of ground water inrush for fault was designed. The water outburst parameters, such as water inflow, permeability, seepage velocity, porosity and other variables under different material combination and water pressures, were obtained; the research results indicate as follows: (1) The changes of the water inflow can be divided into three stages, i.e., the water inflow slowly increases at the early stage, rapidly increases at the middle stage and keeps unchanged at the late stage. (2) The seepage process can be represented by the seepage combination types, which are composed of pore flow, fissure flow and pipe flow, and the seepage changes not only with time but also with different conditions. (3) Mining would lead to the reactivation of faults and further enhance the permeability of fault zone potentially. The tiny granules in fault would be eroded and moved to exterior as the time under the high water pressure and lead to the change of porosity parameters. In this case, the seepage velocity would increase ceaselessly, and then the seepage would convert into pipe flow and finally lead to water inrush accidents. Copyright Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht 2014