ABSTRACT
The Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) is an underground repository for the permanent disposal of transuranic radioactive waste generated by defense activities. Sandia National Laboratory and Westinghouse Electric Corp. completed detailed test mining and geotechnical monitoring in several experimental areas and are in the process of developing constitutive models for rock salt. In view of the limitations for unambiguous modeling of the complete strata deformation process, this paper incorporates the extensive deformation data into a statistical analysis to help predict changes in ground conditions at the site.
The statistical analysis approach consisted of (1) characterization of twelve mining, bolting, and geologic variables at 121 instrumented locations, (2) development of a mathematical model (3) identification of important variables influencing convergence and (4) application of the model for prediction of convergence and stability.
