Seepage field characteristic and stability analysis of tailings dam under action of chemical solution

Abstract

As one of the important influencing factors of tailings dam stability, seepage field distribution within the dam is often affected by the tailings mineral characteristics. While the alkalinity or acidity of reservoir water and long term immersion will partially change the physical and mechanical properties of tailings. This study carried out permeability tests of tailings under the action of chemical solution. On this basis, a three dimensional (3D) model was constructed to analyze the velocity field and effective saturation within the tailings dam. Moreover, the dam section along the valley bottom was selected as the basic section in calculation, so as to analyze the changes in infiltration point and buried depth of the phreatic line under different permeability coefficient ratios. The results suggest that, under the action of acid-alkaline solution, the permeability coefficients of tailings reduced, and the stronger solution acidity-alkalinity resulted in the longer action time and more obvious change; under the action of chemical solution, the fluid flow velocity in the dam gradually decreased, and the drat beach length in the reservoir gradually shortened. Besides, when the upper layer permeability coefficients of tailings was lower than that of the lower layer, the dam phreatic line had a shallow buried depth and a high infiltration point.