The 4th International Symposium on Mine Safety Science and Engineering (ISMSSE2018)

370 / 2018-05-31 20:45:25

The effect of expansion construction and rainfall intensity on the stability of a tailings pond

Tailings pond; Expansion; Rainfall intensity; Factor of safety; Numerical simulation

Mine Dynamics Disaster > tailings pond

Numerical simulation methods were conducted to study the stability of a tailings pond which will expand its storage capacity in the next 5 years. A 2D simulation model of the tailings pond at current stage was set up using Geostudio software. Then the static factor of safety(FOS) of the tailings dam with different heighten values was obtained by Geostudio Slope/W module. Meanwhile, Geostudio Seep/W module was used to simulate rainfall infiltration in the tailings pond and the FOS of the tailings dam with different heighten values and different rainfall conditions was calculated by the coupling analysis of Geostudio Seep/W and Slope/W modules. Simulation results show that (1) the static FOS of the tailings dam decreases as the rising of tailings pond’s height and the minimum static FOS is 1.512 when the heighten value of the tailings pond is 10 meters; (2) the FOS of the tailings dam decreases as the increasing of rainfall intensity and the minimum value of FOS is 1.055 when the heighten value of tailings pond is 10 meters and flood happens at the same time. So the minimum FOS of the tailings dam with or without rainfall effect is greater than the FOS value specified by the Safety Technical Regulations for Tailings Pond in China and the tailings pond will keep stable operation during its expansion construction.