Spatial modeling of discontinuity intensity from borehole observations at El Teniente mine, Chile
Artículo

Open/ Download
Publication date
2017Metadata
Show full item record
Cómo citar
Hekmatnejad, Amin
Cómo citar
Spatial modeling of discontinuity intensity from borehole observations at El Teniente mine, Chile
Author
Abstract
This work addresses the problem of predicting the discontinuity intensity P32 (discontinuity area per unit volume
of rock mass) in space and of quantifying the uncertainty in the true P32 values, using information from observed
discontinuities intersecting boreholes. This problem is relevant in various fields of engineering, including mining
applications, hydrocarbon extraction, groundwater modeling and civil works. The main idea is to calculate
experimental P32 values for borehole segments (composites), based on a Terzaghi weighting of the discontinuities
that intersect the boreholes. A validation exercise performed on simulated discrete fracture networks
demonstrates that the calculated P32 values provide unbiased predictions of the true P32, at both global
and local scales, and can therefore be used as experimental data for spatial interpolation purposes.
By using geostatistical simulation techniques, the spatial prediction of the P32 and the corresponding measures
of uncertainty can be obtained on a block-by-block basis. This methodology is applied to a data set from the
El Teniente copper mine, Codelco-Chile. The objective is to map the expected values of the intensity of stockwork
veins with a weak infill mineral assemblage and a typical thickness greater than 1 mm, which are referred to as
weak veins. Confidence limits on this intensity and its probability of exceeding given critical values are also
estimated. The quality of the prediction and of the uncertainty quantification is checked by leave-one-out crossvalidation.
The resulting confidence limits and probability maps can be used as indicators to define geotechnical
domains in the rock mass.
Patrocinador
CONICYT/
FONDECYT/REGULAR/N°1170101
Indexation
Artículo de publicación ISI
Identifier
URI: https://repositorio.uchile.cl/handle/2250/148719
DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.enggeo.2017.07.012
Quote Item
Engineering Geology 228 (2017) 97–106
Collections
The following license files are associated with this item: