No abstract

No abstract

No abstract

Plate anchors are one the most important retaining objects that are widely used in onshore and offshore structures. This study was conducted to evaluate the performance of plate anchor retaining walls based on experimental modelling. The evaluation includes the assessment of the effects of the square and circular forms of the anchor plates, their dimensions and the reinforcement configuration. To visualise the critical slip surface occurring in the soil surrounding the wall and the effects of these parameters on the failure wedge, the particle image velocimetry (PIV) technique was applied. The results showed that the highest bearing capacity and the lowest horizontal displacement of the wall were in the 5-anchors, the diamond and the square reinforcement configurations in that order. The diamond configuration with one less reinforcement showed a relatively lower difference from the results found for the 5-anchors configuration. The circular anchor plates provided higher stability in the wall. According to the results of the PIV analysis, the particle strain on the critical slip surface was smaller in the 5-anchors and the diamond reinforcement configurations than in the square reinforcement configuration. The values of the particle strain in the circular plates were smaller than in the square anchor plates.

Large-scale open-pit mining activities have profound impacts on the surrounding landscape and environment. At the cessation of open-pit mining, the rehabilitation of large void spaces can be achieved by pit-lake filling, where the water body provides a confining pressure on surrounding mine surfaces, reducing both the likelihood of slope failure and the need for ongoing slope maintenance. Although pit-lakes present a range of long-term benefits, the geotechnical performance of mines containing soft soils that are susceptible to creep under increasing loads due to pit-lake filling is seldom considered. From a geotechnical standpoint, creep induced failure is commonly associated with slow, downslope movements, prior to critical slope failure events. In this research, time-dependent slope stability analyses based on creep-sensitive materials are presented for an open-cut mine undergoing pit-lake filling. Numerical simulation provides a mechanism for the assessment of materials exhibiting soft soil creep constitutive behaviour under various loading conditions due to pit-lake filling. The response of mine surfaces is investigated for various filling regimes, highlighting location-dependent deformation rates, pore pressures and slope Factors of Safety for a large Australian open-pit brown coal mine. Results are presented for two separate creep-sensitive materials, identifying the ability to achieve final, stable landforms for a range of long-term pit-lake conditions. Article Highlights Time-dependent creep deformation behaviour is investigated for a large Victorian open-pit brown coal mine undergoing pit-lake rehabilitation. The soft soil creep model is implemented for a large open-pit rehabilitation model, to assess long-lasting creep movements of a specific mine slope. Mine void filling rates are simulated for a range of rehabilitation scenarios over a 5 to 40 year period, identifying the excess pore water pressure distributions in addition to vertical and horizontal deformations rates. The long-term behaviour of 8 cross-section profiles is presented, identifying the effect of pit-lake filling for silt and clay interseam materials.