SIMPLIFICATION POSSIBILITIES FOR COUPLED THM MODELS OF ARTIFICIAL GROUND FREEZING IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF MINE SHAFTS

Abstract

An important stage in the design of the artificial ground freezing during the construc-tion of mine shafts (and other underground structures) is the simulation of deformation and heat transfer in the media to be frozen. This is necessary to calculate the required thicknesses of frozen wall, the time of its formation and the parameters of freezing stations. The choice of an adequate mathematical model is impossible without analyzing the significance and coupling of various physical processes occurring during the freezing of soil. Such an analysis allows se-lecting a reasonable degree of detailing of physical processes in the model: take into account all important factors and neglect the rest. This article proposes a methodology for analyzing the significance and coupling of such physical processes. For this, a general thermo-hydro-mechanical model of soil freezing has been formulated, a set of dimensionless complexes has been identified and classified, which determine the relationship between various physical pro-cesses. The transition from the general thermo-hydro-mechanical model to simpler models is possible only if the corresponding dimensionless complexes are small.