Coefficient of At-Rest Earth Pressure of Cemented Nonplastic Mine Tailings
Publication: Journal of Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Engineering
Volume 149, Issue 11
Abstract
Backfilling is critical to deep and high-stress mining in order to minimize stress redistributions in the host rock, which can lead to mining-induced seismicity and underground excavation collapse. Cemented paste backfill (CPB) is the most popular backfilling material in the mining industry; it is a mixture of mine tailings, binder, and water, which tightly fills the mined-out space, providing optimum regional ground control. This paper presents the results of a laboratory study of the evolution of the coefficient of at-rest earth pressure () of a typical CPB material. The impact of parameters such as cement content and curing time on and one-dimensional behavior of a CPB in stresses up to 1.8 MPa was studied. In general, behavior is characterized by three regions: elastic, transitional, and posttransitional. Fitting functions are proposed to predict evolving based on cement content, specimen curing time, and unconfined compressive strength (UCS) as the most common laboratory test in geomechanical engineering practices. Although the calibrated functions are specific to the material tested, the testing approach can be used to characterize other mines’ backfills.
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Data Availability Statement
All data, models, and code generated or used during the study appear in the published paper.
Acknowledgments
The authors express their gratitude to Barrick Gold Corp and Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council Canada (Collaborative Research and Development Grant No. 514220-1) for financial support of this research as a part of a larger investigation into the behavior of high-performance cemented paste backfill.
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Information & Authors
Information
Published In
Journal of Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Engineering
Volume 149 • Issue 11 • November 2023
Copyright
© 2023 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Aug 4, 2022
Accepted: Jun 15, 2023
Published online: Sep 5, 2023
Published in print: Nov 1, 2023
Discussion open until: Feb 5, 2024
ASCE Technical Topics:
- Backfills
- Cement
- Compressive strength
- Concrete
- Construction engineering
- Construction methods
- Curing
- Engineering fundamentals
- Engineering materials (by type)
- Environmental engineering
- Excavation
- Geomechanics
- Geotechnical engineering
- Laboratory tests
- Material mechanics
- Material properties
- Material tests
- Materials engineering
- Materials processing
- Mine wastes
- Pollutants
- Soil dynamics
- Soil mechanics
- Soil pressure
- Strength of materials
- Tests (by type)
- Wastes
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