Abstract
This work is aimed at revealing the mesophysical process and mechanical behaviors of fine-grained tailing sand during seepage failure. The macroscopic seepage tests combined with posttest X-ray computed tomography (CT) were employed to study the fractal characteristics of mesostructure. Results show that before and after the seepage failure of fine-grained tailing sand, fractal of pore distribution ( D pd ) and fractal dimension of pore size ( D ps ) show a relatively obvious positive correlation with porosity. Tailing particles migrate along the seepage direction during the seepage process, resulting in the gradual decrease of D pd and pore distribution area. The D ps reflects the variation characteristics of pore number distribution with different pore sizes. The increase in D ps leads to a decrease in the uniformity of pore size and an increase in the size difference between pores. The mass fractal dimension ( D m ) of fine-grained tailing sand samples ranges from 1.6472 to 1.8256. With the increase of D m , the coefficient of uniformity ( C u ) of tailing sand tends to increase. The D m method can discern the seepage failure type of fine-grained tailing sand, and it is more accurate than the traditional method. This study provides a reference for the prevention and control of the seepage failure of tailing dam.
Highlights
Tailing sand is the raw material for the tailing dam
This paper studies the fractal characteristics of the mesostructure before and after the tailing sand seepage failure and proposes the Dm method to distinguish the seepage failure type of tailing sand
The fine tailing sand particles migrate and flow along the seepage direction under the action of seepage force, which changes the skeleton of the tailing sand particles
Summary
Tailing sand is the raw material for the tailing dam It is a special geotechnical medium produced after ore crushing and separation. Fine tailing sand particles migrate under the action of pore water seepage, which affects the skeleton structure of tailing particles and weakens the structural strength of the tailing dam [4]. It may cause seepage damage and even instability of tailing dam. Shi et al [12] studied the changed characteristics of particle distribution and pore structure of three kinds of fine-grained tailing sand after seepage failure by micro-CT. The introduction of fractal theory is helpful to study the variation characteristics of mesostructure
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