Abstract
Mineral tailing deposits are one of the most important issues in the field of geotechnical engineering. The void ratio of mineral tailings is an essential parameter for investigating the geotechnical behavior of tailings. However, there has not yet been a comprehensive empirical formulation for initial prediction of the void ratio of mineral tailings. In this study, the void ratio of various types of mineral waste is estimated by using gene expression programming (GEP). Therefore, taking into consideration the effective physical parameters that affect the estimation of this parameter, eight different models are presented. A reliable experimental database collected from different sources in the literature was applied to develop the GEP models. The performance of the developed GEP models was measured based on coefficient of determination (R2), mean absolute error (MAE), and root mean square error (RMSE). According to the results, the model with effective stress σ ′ , initial void ratio (e0), and parameters of R2 = 0.92, MAE = 0.109, and RMSE = 0.180 performed the best. Finally, a new empirical formulation for the initial prediction of the void ratio parameter is proposed based on the aforementioned analyses.
Highlights
Understanding tailing behavior is one of the most challenging issues for both geotechnical and environment engineers
A remarkable volume of mineral waste flows down the tailing dams after a failure occurs. is usually leads to both human deaths and severe environmental pollution. erefore, understanding the strength and consolidation behavior of mineral waste used in the tailing dams can give us an insight into factors that affect failure occurrence and slope stability
Gene Expression Programming (GEP). e gene expression programming method was firstly introduced by Ferreira in 1999 [21]. is method is an evolutionary algorithm which is closely related to genetic algorithms (GAs) and genetic programming (GP). e significant difference between these methods is in the statement and nature of individuals
Summary
Understanding tailing behavior is one of the most challenging issues for both geotechnical and environment engineers. Tailings are defined as mineral waste that is crushed and deposited after the extraction of desired minerals. Constructing a tailing dam usually requires a remarkable amount of loan resources. Mineral waste is applied to reduce the construction costs of tailing dams [1]. According to the International Commission on Large Dams, more than 200 failures of tailing dams have occurred since the early twentieth century. A remarkable volume of mineral waste flows down the tailing dams after a failure occurs. Erefore, understanding the strength and consolidation behavior of mineral waste used in the tailing dams can give us an insight into factors that affect failure occurrence and slope stability A remarkable volume of mineral waste flows down the tailing dams after a failure occurs. is usually leads to both human deaths and severe environmental pollution. erefore, understanding the strength and consolidation behavior of mineral waste used in the tailing dams can give us an insight into factors that affect failure occurrence and slope stability
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