Hydrogeological Effects of Fault Geometry for Analysing Groundwater Inflow in a Coal Mine

We investigated the relationship between mine water inflow and fault development. Statistical methods and grey relational analysis (GRA) were used to analyse the relationship between fault complexity and mine water inflow. Major characteristics, such as the fault number, fault strike length, fault throw, fault intersections, and endpoints, were considered to depict fault complexity. The degree of fault complexity was described using a fault influence factor (E) and fault fractal dimensions (Ds). In addition, an inverse distance-weighting interpolation method was used to better describe the fault characteristics. The fault complexity in the study area was divided into four qualitative levels: simple, moderate, relatively complex, and complex. The results show that water pressure and fault complexity have separate nonlinear relationships with mine water inflow. An equation that presents the correlation between parameters and water inflow was derived using the GRA method.