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

381 / 2018-06-25 10:56:00

Grain-size effect on the hydro-dynamics of mudflow surging from tailings dam-break-02

Tailings dam; Dam-break; hydro-dynamics; Grain-size effect; Experimental test

Mine Dynamics Disaster > tailings pond

Because of the difference of mineral processing techniques, the grain-size of tailings that were used to construction a tailings pond is not the same. The hydro-dynamical characteristics of mudflow caused by the failure of tailing dams was influenced by grain-size, solids concentration, surface roughness of gully and tailings pond geometry, although the behavior and influence of grain-size of mudflow from tailings dam failure have not been examined sufficiently. In order to investigate the grain-size effect on the hydro-dynamical characteristics of mudflow surging from tailings dam failure, the law of mudflow evolution, the change of dynamics pressure, and the velocity distributions of mudflow were obtained by a series of flume experiments using three types of grain size tailings(d50=0.72 mm; d50=0.26 mm; d50=0.08 mm). This study conclusively showed that as the grain-size increased, the peak value of mudflow depth was notably decreased at the same section, however, the velocity and the dynamics pressure raised significantly, and the velocity presented two primary stages obviously, namely rapid reduction stage and slow reduction stage. This research provided a framework for the exploration of the grain-size effect on the hydro-dynamics of slurry surging from tailings dam failure, and all presented results could be applied to assess the potential for damage in case of tailings dam failure accurately.