Mechanical Properties and Particle Breakage of Uniform-Sized Tailings Material
Publication: Journal of Materials in Civil Engineering
Volume 33, Issue 3
Abstract
Tailings dam disasters are reported almost every year and are triggered by mechanisms, such as overtopping, piping, and others. The failures due to inadequate management cannot be neglected as well. These dams are constructed mostly in a step-by-step construction method that leads to a continuously changing state of vertical loads during construction and may lead to particle breakage and changes in strength. Therefore, a layer of tailings dam today may not be the same tomorrow during the construction phase. To study the effects of different loads on particle breakage and strength, direct shear tests were performed on remolded tailings samples that were separated into different particle sizes. The tests were performed using different normal stresses that ranged from 50 to 500 kPa. The results indicate that finer tailings exhibited slightly more shear resistance than that of coarser tailings irrespective of the deposition method. For normally deposited specimen, the dilatant and contractant behavior in vertical height was observed when the normal effective stress was less than 300 kPa and greater than 300 kPa, respectively. Under the vertical deposition method, the finer tailings showed contractant height behavior when subjected to a normal effective stress of 300 kPa. The friction angle and the cohesion of vertically deposited specimens were slightly higher and slightly lower, respectively, than that of normally deposited ones. The breakage of tailings particles was observed to be proportional to the particle size of the tailings.
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Data Availability Statement
All of the data, models, and code generated or used during the study appear in the published article.
Acknowledgments
Luleå University of Technology is to be acknowledged for providing financial support and laboratory resources. TCS AB and Boliden AB are acknowledged for providing background information and material for the tests and for their valuable participation during the interpretation of the results. The financial support from the J. Gust. Richert Foundation is also highly acknowledged. Dr. Juan Rodriguez is also acknowledged for his assistance with particle shapes and the performance of the sieve analysis. The research presented was carried out as a part of “Swedish Hydropower Centre - SVC”. SVC has been established by the Swedish Energy Agency, Elforsk, and Svenska Kraftnät together with Luleå University of Technology, The Royal Institute of Technology, Chalmers University of Technology, and Uppsala University.
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Published In
Journal of Materials in Civil Engineering
Volume 33 • Issue 3 • March 2021
Copyright
© 2020 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: May 5, 2020
Accepted: Aug 3, 2020
Published online: Dec 17, 2020
Published in print: Mar 1, 2021
Discussion open until: May 17, 2021
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