Learning

Software Tutorials

Using Python in Itasca Software

Python scripting is built into current versions of FLAC3D, 3DEC, and PFC. This video introduces users of Itasca software to working with Python and FLAC3D, 3DEC, and PFC types (zones, blocks, ball, structural elements, and so on). The Itasca Module, a comparison with FISH scripting, and object-oriented and array-oriented interfaces are reviewed and demonstrated.

FLAC3D 6.0 Model Generation using the Building Blocks and Geometric Data Sets

PFC 7 Balls in a Box

This tutorial will guide you through the main steps required to build a simple PFC model with 30 interacting balls in a box using the linear contact model.

Technical Papers

Numerical Evaluation of Effectiveness of Drainwells in Dewatering Overburden at Surface Coal Mines

Typical sedimentary sequences overlying coal seams consist of interbedded sandstones, siltstones, shales, and rider coal seams.

Connectivity, permeability, and channeling in randomly distributed and kinematically defined discrete fracture network models

A major use of DFN models for industrial applications is to evaluate permeability and flow structure in hardrock aquifers from geological observations of fracture networks. The relationship between the statistical fracture density distributions and permeability has been extensively studied, but there has been little interest in the spatial structure of DFN models, which is generally assumed to be spatially random (i.e., Poisson). In this paper, we compare the predictions of Poisson DFNs to new DFN models where fractures result from a growth process defined by simplified kinematic rules for nucleation, growth, and fracture arrest.

Mine Dewatering in a Compartmentalized Hydrogeologic Setting at Sishen Mine in South Africa

Sishen mine in South Africa is one of the largest open-pit iron mines in the world.