Piping-Seepage Mechanism of Tailings with Different Fine Particle Contents
Publication: International Journal of Geomechanics
Volume 23, Issue 11
Abstract
Piping-seepage damage is one of the major factors leading to tailings dam failure. To explore the microscopic influence mechanism of tailings with different fine content on piping development, on the basis of the indoor permeability test, combined with the coupling method of discrete particle flow at the microlevel, through the small seepage model test, the discrete element model of the model test was further constructed. The effects of different fine particle contents on particle size composition, permeability, critical water head, fine particle migration, and porosity of samples were analyzed by an indoor small-scale seepage model and the corresponding numerical simulation study. The results showed that before the occurrence of piping, with the increase of fine particle content, the gradation constant is less than 0.074 mm, and the downward trend changes abruptly, showing a concave curve change. The permeability coefficient showed a decreasing trend, and the critical water head increased. The maximum void ratio and the minimum void ratio generally decreased first and then increased. The strong force chain decreased, and the total force chain increased; there were obvious differences in the change of porosity of different fine particle contents before, during, and after destruction. This was verified by the indoor physical model test that different fine particle contents will lead to different sand inflows in seepage dam break. In practical engineering, it is more helpful to provide a new way for the comprehensive prevention of seepage failure of tailings dam by clarifying the disaster-causing mechanism of piping and seepage failure of tailings dam from the mesostructure.
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Data Availability Statement
All data, models, and codes generated or used during the study appear in the published article.
Acknowledgments
This study was partially funded by the open fund project of the National Engineering and Technology Research Center for Development & Utilization of Phosphate Resources (No. NECP2022-07), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 52174114), the State Key Laboratory of Hydroscience and Engineering of Tsinghua University (No. 61010101218), and the Open Research Fund Program of State Key Laboratory of Hydroscience and Engineering (No. sklhse-2023-D-02).
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Published In
International Journal of Geomechanics
Volume 23 • Issue 11 • November 2023
Copyright
© 2023 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Nov 27, 2022
Accepted: Apr 30, 2023
Published online: Aug 31, 2023
Published in print: Nov 1, 2023
Discussion open until: Jan 31, 2024
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