Overtopping Failure of a Reinforced Tailings Dam: Laboratory Investigation and Forecasting Model of Dam Failure

Abstract

Overtopping failure of reinforced tailings dam may cause significant damage to theenvironment and even loss of life. In order to investigate the feature of overtopping of the reinforcedtailings dam, which has rarely appeared in the literature, the displacement, the phreatic level and theinternal stress of dam during overtopping were measured by a series of physical model tests. Thisstudy conclusively showed that, as the number of reinforcement layers increased, the anti-erosioncapacity of tailings dam was notably improved. It could be supported by the change of the dimensionof dam breach, the reduction of stress loss rate, and the rise of phreatic level from the tests. Based onthe erosion principle, a mathematical model was proposed to predict the width of the tailings dambreach, considering the number of reinforcement layers. This research provided a framework for theexploration of the overtopping erosion of reinforced tailings dam, and all presented expressions couldbe applied to predict the development of breach during overtopping.

The Application of the Seismic Cone Penetration Test (SCPTU) in Tailings Water Conditions Monitoring

“…Monitoring of water conditions in hydrotechnical facilities, which includes the outflowed postflotation tailings storage facility, is one of the basic operations to ensure the safe exploitation of such facilities. The literature on this issue indicates inadequate water conditions as the main cause of failures of TSF [3][4][5]7,30,31]. Hence, the problem of proper recognition and reliable monitoring of water conditions is of particular importance.…”

Effects of Geosynthetic Reinforcement on Tailings Accumulation Dams

“…For instance, Yin et al [18] designed a tailings accumulation dam model based on the Longdu tailings pond and conducted a failure model test of a reinforced accumulation dam, specifically testing the effects of dam reinforcement and different failure modes. Jing et al [19] conducted an overtopping failure model test of a tailings pond dam and found that reinforcement can effectively reduce the overtopping failure of tailings pond flooding. Matsuoka et al [20] proposed a new geobag technology for strengthening slopes and foundations and studied its reinforcement mechanism, engineering characteristics, and design method.…”

Study on Hydraulic Incipient Motion Model of Reinforced Tailings

“…Jing et al [15] studied the internal pore water pressure, earth pressure, phreatic line, dam failure, and other laws of tailings dam in the overtopping process under different reinforcement densities. Jing et al [16] carried out the experiment of reinforced tailings dam overtopping, and the results show that the reinforced tailings dam can effectively reduce the water erosion during overtopping.…”