Numerical investigation of slurry property effect on grouting and blocking of flowing water in rock fractures

Abstract In order to investigate the slurry flow behavior, our newly proposed numerical method is applied to simulate the fracture grouting with flowing water condition. First, by numerical validation and experiment comparison, the advantages of this method in computation efficiency and accuracy are shown. Second, the initial velocity of water and slurry properties at different levels are selected as the influencing factors, the water reduction effect, grouting pressure, and slurry deposition behavior in different cases are investigated, and the variation characteristics of flow field and slurry outflow are analyzed. The simulation results show that within the range of slurry properties and flow velocity given in this paper, cement slurry cannot seal the water inflow. Instead, quick setting slurry with different material ratios can effectively seal the fracture. The sealing efficiency is more sensitive to the initial flow rate than the slurry property. When the groundwater flow rate is low, the effect of slurry proportion on sealing can be ignored. Meanwhile, slurry properties have more influence on the final grouting pressure. There is an obvious surge in grouting pressure after sealing, which can be used as a criterion for fracture sealing.