Numerical modeling of ground movement above underground salt mines in Tuzla city, Bosnia and Herzegovina

The subsidence occurring in the city of Tuzla in Bosnia and Herzegovina (B&H) is an important issue which has caused several damages in the past decades. This phenomena is related to the massive extraction of salt and the presence of salt caverns below the city. The aim of this project is to elaborate several numerical models using the viscoplastic Norton’s creep power-law model in order to reproduce the subsidence. An axisymmetric model and a plane-strain model are created and different types of simulations are performed for determining the governing parameters. It has been found that the key parameters are the volume of the caverns which is related to the extracted quantity of salt and the viscoplastic parameter of the model. The final results appear to be close to the measured subsidence by monitoring but it does not permit to conclude that the ongoing subsidence is caused by viscoplastic deformations.