CHALLENGES ASSOCIATED WITH THE DESIGN OF COVERS

摘要

The use of Cover Systems over top of mining wastes and industrial wastes has become a common solution for mitigating the release of contaminants into the environment. The design of single layer or multi layer cover systems appears to be quite straight forward from a conceptual standpoint. However, once the design procedure is embarked upon, it becomes clear that many assumptions are required as part of the design procedure. In addition, the numerical modelling procedure may prove to be a challenge because of the highly nonlinear nature of the partial differential equation that must be solved. The nonlinearity is generated because of the nonlinear permeability and water storage functions that are part of infiltration modelling. While the design of cover systems has proved to be challenging, there are also solutions that have been forthcoming. This paper attempts to describe the nature of the assumptions that need to be made as well as the solutions that have been developed for acceptable protocols for engineering design.