Mechanical-Based Properties of Mine Tailings for Static Liquefaction
Publication: Geo-Congress 2022
ABSTRACT
Static liquefaction has been associated with numerous recent failures of tailings storage facilities (TSFs) around the world. These failures lead to devastating consequences for the environment and civil infrastructure and lead to the loss of human lives. In this study, we present trends for the response of mine tailings to monotonic loading considering (1) triaxial tests, (2) bender element tests, and (3) consolidation tests performed on mine tailings. These materials have a broad range of states (i.e., from very loose to dense states), a range of particle size distributions (i.e., from silty sand to almost pure silt mine tailings), and a broad range of compressibility. The trends are evaluated in the context of static liquefaction using critical state soil mechanics concepts considering different state definitions. In particular, we present trends for shear strength (residual and peak), state and brittleness soil indexes, and excess pore pressure indexes. Finally, static liquefaction screening indexes are proposed based on the observed trends, highlighting that static liquefaction is just another facet of soil behavior under monotonic loadings, and hence it should be explained under a mechanistic framework.
Get full access to this article
View all available purchase options and get full access to this chapter.
REFERENCES
Anderson, C., and Eldridge, T. (2011). Critical state liquefaction assessment of an upstream constructed tailings sand dam. Tailings and Mine Waste 2010.
Bedin, J., Schnaid, F., Da Fonseca, A. V., and Costa Filho, L. D. M. (2012). Gold tailings liquefaction under critical state soil mechanics. Géotechnique, 62(3):263–267.
Been, K. (2016). Characterizing mine tailings for geotechnical design. Geotechnical and Geophysical Site Characterisation 5. Australian Geomechanics Society, Sydney, Australia, 41–56.
Carrera, A., Coop, M., and Lancellotta, R. (2011). Influence of grading on the mechanical behaviour of Stava tailings. Géotechnique, 61(11):935–946.
Cho, G.-C., Dodds, J., and Santamarina, J. C. 2006. “Particle Shape Effects on Packing Density, Stiffness, and Strength: Natural and Crushed Sands.” Journal of Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Engineering, 132(5):591–602.
Fourie, A. B., and Papageorgiou, G. (2001). Defining an appropriate steady state line for Merriespruit gold tailings. Canadian Geotechnical Journal, 38(4):695–706.
Fourie, A. B., and Tshabalala, L. (2005). Initiation of static liquefaction and the role of K0 consolidation. Canadian Geotechnical Journal, 42(3):892–906.
Gill, S. S. (2019). Geotechnical properties of tailings: effect of fines content. University of Toronto.
Hardin, B. O., and Richart, F. E. (1963). Elastic wave velocities in granular soils. Journal of the Soil Mechanics and Foundations Division, ASCE, 89(SM1):33–65.
Jefferies, M. G., and Been, K. (2016). Soil liquefaction: a critical state approach. 2nd edn. Boca Raton, FL, USA: CRC Press.
Li, W. (2017). The mechanical behaviour of tailings. PhD. Thesis, City University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong.
Li, W., and Coop, M. R. (2019). Mechanical behaviour of Panzhihua iron tailings. Canadian Geotechnical Journal, 56(3):420–435.
Li, W., Coop, M. R., Senetakis, K., and Schnaid, F. (2018). The mechanics of a silt-sized gold tailing. Engineering Geology, 241, 97–108. doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.enggeo.2018.05.014.
Macedo, J., and Petalas, A. (2019). Calibration of Two Plasticity Models against the Static and Cyclic Response of Tailings Materials. Proceedings of Tailings and Mine Waste 2019, Vancouver.
Morgenstern, N. R., Jefferies, M., Zyl, D., and Wates, J. (2019). Independent Technical Review Board. Ashurst Australia.
Morgenstern, N. R., Vick, S. G., Viotti, C. B., and Watts, B. D. (2016). Fundao tailings dam review panel. New York: Cleary Gottlieb Steen and Hamilton LLP.
Morgenstern, N. R., Vick, S. G., and Zyl, D. (2015). Independent Expert Engineering Investigation and Review Panel.”. British Columbia.
Payan, M., Khoshghalb, A., Senetakis, K., and Khalili, N. 2015. “Effect of particle shape and validity of Gmax models for sand: A critical review and a new expression.” Computers and Geotechnics, 72:28–41.
Pestana, J. M., and Whittle, A. J. (1995). Compression model for cohesionless soils. Géotechnique, 45(4):611–631.
Rabbi, A. T. M. Z., Rahman, M. M., and Cameron, D. A. (2019). The relation between the state indices and the characteristic features of undrained behaviour of silty sand. Soils and Foundations, 59(4):801–813.
Raposo, N. (2016). Deposição de rejeitados espessados. caraterização experimental e modelação numérica. PhD. Thesis, University of Porto.
Reid, D. (2015). Estimating slope of critical state line from cone penetration test - an update. Canadian Geotechnical Journal, 52(1), 46–57.
Reid, D., and Fanni, R. (2020). A comparison of intact and reconstituted samples of a silt tailings. Géotechnique, 1–13. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1680/jgeot.20.p.020
Reid, D., Fanni, R., Koh, K., and Orea, I. (2018). Characterisation of a subaqueously deposited silt iron ore tailings. Géotechnique Letters, 8(4):278–283.
Reid, D., Fourie, A., Ayala, J. L., Dickinson, S., Ochoa-Cornejo, F., Fanni, R., Garfias, A., Da Fonseca, A., Ghafghaz, M., Ovalle, C., Riemer, M., Rismanchian, A., and Suazo, G. (2020). Results of a critical state line testing round robin programme. Géotechnique, 1–15.
Riemer, M., Macedo, J., Roman, O., and Paihua, S. (2017). Effects of stress state on the cyclic response of mine tailings and its impact on expanding a tailings impoundment. 3rd International Conference on Performance-based Design in Earthquake Geotechnical Engineering. Vancouver.
Robertson, P. K., De Melo, L., Williams, D. J., and Wilson, G. W. (2019). Report of the Expert Panel on the Technical Causes of the Failure of Feijão Dam I.
Sadrekarimi, A. (2013). Influence of state and compressibility on liquefied strength of sands. Canadian Geotechnical Journal, 50(10):1067–1076.
Sadrekarimi, A. (2014). Effect of the mode of shear on static liquefaction analysis. Journal of Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Engineering, 140(12):04014069.
Sadrekarimi, A. (2016). Static Liquefaction Analysis considering principal stress directions and anisotropy. Geotechnical and Geological Engineering, 34(4):1135–1154.
Sadrekarimi, A. (2020). Forewarning of Static Liquefaction Landslides. Journal of Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Engineering, 146(9), 04020090.
Schnaid, F., Bedin, J., Viana da Fonseca, A. J. P., and Costa Filho, L. D. (2013). Stiffness and strength governing the static liquefaction of tailings. Journal of Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Engineering, 139(12):2136–2144.
Shuttle, D. A., and Cunning, J. (2007). Liquefaction potential of silts from CPTu. Canadian Geotechnical Journal, 44(1):1–19. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1139/t06-086.
Shuttle, D., and Jefferies, M. (2016). Determining silt state from CPTu. Geotechnical Research, 3(3):90–118.
Smith, K., Fanni, R., Capman, P., and Reid, D. (2019). Critical State Testing of Tailings: Comparison between Various Tailings and Implications for Design. Proceedings of Tailings and Mine Waste 2019. Vancouver.
Soares, M., and da Fonseca, A. V. (2016). Factors affecting steady state locus in triaxial tests. Geotechnical Testing Journal, 39(6): 1056–1078.
Torres, L. A. (2016). Use of the cone penetration test to assess the liquefaction potential of tailings storage facilities. PhD. Thesis, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg.
USACE. (2016). National inventory of dams. Army Corp of Engineers.
Information & Authors
Information
Published In
History
Published online: Mar 17, 2022
Authors
Metrics & Citations
Metrics
Citations
Download citation
If you have the appropriate software installed, you can download article citation data to the citation manager of your choice. Simply select your manager software from the list below and click Download.