Modeling the Seismic Stability of Coal-Waste Tailings Dams

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9527387 Zeng Coal processing waste dams are used to store coal slurry, and as such have many characteristics in common with a broader class of structures known as tailings dams. Tailings dams are characterized by hydraulically placed fills held in place by an embankment. Failure of tailings dams due to earthquakes has occurred many times in the past, causing significant loss of property and human lives as well as severe environmental problems. Despite the damage caused by such failures, there has been little research conducted to evaluate the stability of such structures under earthquake loading. Coal waste is a fine grained material which is sensitive to cyclic loading. High excess pore pressure, and in the worst scenario liquefaction of the tailings, can cause large pressure on the supporting embankment and initiate catastrophic failure. This project uses a geotechnical centrifuge modeling technique to study the mechanism of failure of coal-waste tailings dams and to generate physical data for the evaluation of current design procedures. The project involves: 1. Two centrifuge tests on tailings dams constructed according to two different construction methods currently used in practice 2. Comparison between the data from centrifuge tests with the results obtained from numerical simulation The results of this study will provide engineers with valuable information concerning the stability of existing tailings dams and guidelines for improvement of future designs. HD/ Data/ Files/ Awards/ Award-FY 96/ Zeng-9527387 ***