Experimental Study on Impermeability Law of Aquiclude Reconstructed by Mudstone of External Dump in Arid Zone

In order to achieve the goal of ecological restoration, plant irrigation, and water retention in the external dump of open-pit coal mine in the arid desert area, it is proposed to use the mudstone in the stripped material to reconstruct the surface aquiclude and improve the water holding capacity of the topsoil. By taking the Hongshaquan Open-Pit Coal Mine as the study object, the red mudstone of mining level +650 was selected as the topsoil aquiclude material through the geological survey. XRD diffraction experiments are used to determine the composition of red mudstone including kaolinite mineral, quartz, potash feldspar, albite, and illite. The moisture content of the red mudstone is 4.16% as measured by the indoor drying experiment. And the particle size of 0.5 mm, 1 mm, and 2 mm and the thickness of 5 cm, 10 cm, and 20 cm rock samples were selected to conduct the indoor soil column experiment. Three indicators of initial infiltration rate, stable infiltration rate, and average infiltration rate were obtained according to the analysis and calculation of the water column drop rate, wet peak drop rate, and cumulative infiltration rate so that the permeability law and coefficient of each group of tests can be known. The finite element transient analysis theory and numerical simulation method were adopted to verify the results of physical experiments. The research results show that +650 level red mudstone has a strong antiseepage ability, and the smaller the particle size, the better the antiseepage performance. For 0.5 mm and 2 mm particle sizes, as the paving height increases, the water-proof effect is better. The laying height of 1 mm particle size has no obvious influence on the water barrier effect. The physical simulation was confirmed to have the same result trend as the numerical simulation, both of which are quadratic functions with the error within a reasonable range.