Abstract
As one of the largest artificial geotechnical structures on earth, the tailings dams are classified as one of the high-risk sources in China’s industry. How to improve the stability and safety of tailings dams remains a challenge for mine operators currently. In this paper, an innovative method is presented for improving the stability of tailings dams, in which the basalt fiber is used to reinforce tailings. The mechanical properties of tailings used for dam-construction have a great influence on the stability of tailings dam. In order to investigate the mechanical performance of basalt fiber-reinforced tailings (BFRT), a series of laboratory triaxial tests were conducted. The effects of five parameters (fiber length, fiber content, particle size, dry density and confining pressure) on the mechanical properties of BFRT were studied. The microstructure and the behavior of interfaces between basalt fibers and tailings particles were analyzed by using scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The triaxial experimental test results show that the mechanical properties of BFRT increase with the increases of fiber length and content, particle size, dry density and confining pressure. The SEM results indicate that the interfacial interaction between fibers and tailings particles is mainly affected by particle shape.
Highlights
Tailings are fine-grained residues left over after the process of separating the valuable fraction from the uneconomic fraction of an ore [1]
As a new green and environmentally friendly inorganic fiber material [9,24], is mainly applied in concrete, clay soil, and expansive soil reinforcement in geotechnical engineering [25,26,27]. All these studies have shown that the performance of soil can be significantly improved by using basalt fiber as a reinforcing material
This paper presents an innovative method, the basalt fiber-reinforced tailings method, for improving the stability of tailings dams
Summary
Tailings are fine-grained residues left over after the process of separating the valuable fraction from the uneconomic fraction of an ore [1]. Chinese technical codes for the design of tailings facilities [28] encourage the use of safe and environmentally friendly new technologies, such as paste [29,30], dry stacking [31], and some relatively new technologies [4,32,33], to improve the environmental and security stability of tailings dams. These regulations provide strong support for the application of fibers in tailings disposal. Based on these particle shape parameters, the interfacial interaction and microstructure between basalt fibers and tailings particles were investigated from the micro-perspective by conducting scanning electron microscopy tests (SEM) to form a preliminary mechanism of the fiber-reinforced tailings
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