Abstract
The stability of tailings dam will be affected by the internal erosion under unsteady seepage caused by heavy rainfall infiltration which changes the physical and mechanical properties of tailings. In this paper, the hydraulic sedimentary model was established to investigate the effects of dry beach slope on the sedimentary characteristics of tailings in upstream tailings dam, and the results indicated that the dry beach with a larger slope has a more obvious stratification of tailings. Additionally, the sand column model was built to investigate the effects of internal erosion on the physical and mechanical properties of sedimentary tailings under unsteady seepage, and the results indicated that the migration of fine-grained tailings was caused by internal erosion increases the permeability and reduces the shear strength of the tailings. After internal erosion of tailings under heavy rainfall in 50 years return period for 24 h, the average particle size of downstream tailings (sample DT), midstream tailings (sample MT), and upstream tailings (sample UT) increased by 6.4%, 12.0%, and 2.4%, respectively, the hydraulic conductivity of the samples DT, MT, and UT increased by 27.2%, 17.9%, and 15.3%, respectively, and the shear strength of each samples decreased by 20.9%, 15.1%, and 12.4%, respectively.
Highlights
As the third-largest mining country, China produces about 300 million tons of tailings every year
The tailings with a particle size of 0.075~0.15 mm are mid-grained tailings primarily located in the middle of the model, its particle size distribution along the slope of the model is the most influenced by the hydrodynamic force
It can be seen from the internal corrosion test that the permeability of tailings has changed significantly under unsteady seepage caused by heavy rainfall infiltration
Summary
As the third-largest mining country, China produces about 300 million tons of tailings every year. Most of the tailings were stored in more than 2000 tailings reservoirs. More than 20% of these hydraulic earth structures are at risk of dam failure, which has become one of the most dangerous sources for mining enterprises [1,2]. Serious tailings dam failure accidents have happened all over the world. Tailings dam-failure accidents of Xinta Mining Company (Shanxi Province, China) in September. 2008 claimed the deaths of 270 people and the direct economic loss of 96.19 million RMB. On 25 January 2019, the collapse of Córrego do Feijão tailing dam at Brumadinho city (Minas Gerais, Brazil) caused at least 12 million cubic meters of tailing to spread into
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