Proceedings of the Rocscience International Conference (RIC 2023)

Mechanical Stability of a Tailings Dam Incorporating Principles of Unsaturated Soil Mechanics

Authors
Juan Pablo Cerutti1, *, Marcelo Esteban Zeballos1
1National University of Córdoba, Córdoba, Argentina
*Corresponding author. Email: juanpcerutti@mi.unc.edu.ar
Corresponding Author
Juan Pablo Cerutti
Available Online 8 November 2023.
DOI
10.2991/978-94-6463-258-3_67How to use a DOI?
Keywords
Tailings Dams; Closure Stage; Coupled Model
Abstract

Tailings dams are an alternative for the final storage of waste produced by the metallurgical mining industry. Unlike water reservoir dams, tailings dams have the particularity of requiring a detailed analysis of the post-operation or closure phase. In this stage, the structure must be as safe as during the exploitation phase, even many years after the economic benefit has ceased. In the present, a significant number of historical cases of tailings dams accidents are known. In several cases, failures were generated by sliding of the dam slope after heavy rains. This article shows a simplified method for the evaluation of the mechanical stability of the embankment wall of a mining dam. The analysis accomplished considers the effect of humidity and suction changes on the shear strength of the materials. Through the implementation of a flow-stability coupled model, it is shown that in the probable occurrence of an extraordinary rainfall event, the studied dam maintains its stability with an acceptable factor of safety.

Copyright
© 2023 The Author(s)
Open Access
Open Access This chapter is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits any noncommercial use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license and indicate if changes were made.

Download article (PDF)

Volume Title
Proceedings of the Rocscience International Conference (RIC 2023)
Series
Atlantis Highlights in Engineering
Publication Date
8 November 2023
ISBN
978-94-6463-258-3
ISSN
2589-4943
DOI
10.2991/978-94-6463-258-3_67How to use a DOI?
Copyright
© 2023 The Author(s)
Open Access
Open Access This chapter is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits any noncommercial use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license and indicate if changes were made.

Cite this article

TY  - CONF
AU  - Juan Pablo Cerutti
AU  - Marcelo Esteban Zeballos
PY  - 2023
DA  - 2023/11/08
TI  - Mechanical Stability of a Tailings Dam Incorporating Principles of Unsaturated Soil Mechanics
BT  - Proceedings of the Rocscience International Conference  (RIC 2023)
PB  - Atlantis Press
SP  - 733
EP  - 740
SN  - 2589-4943
UR  - https://doi.org/10.2991/978-94-6463-258-3_67
DO  - 10.2991/978-94-6463-258-3_67
ID  - Cerutti2023
ER  -