Seismic Liquefaction of Mine Tailings

采矿过程中的残余废物，或尾矿，最常用的处理方法是将地面岩石与水混合，并将其作为泥浆泵入大型泻湖，这些泻湖由由尾矿的较粗部分建造的水坝保留。泻湖中沉积物的非常松散的状态促进了它们的液化，因此大坝溃坝的后果可能非常严重，造成生命、家园、生计的损失，并因数百万立方米的废物的释放而造成广泛的环境破坏。自1917年以来，发生了超过245起尾矿坝事故。2008年发生在中国香汾县的大坝垮塌造成277人死亡，但这些灾难绝不仅限于发展中经济体。1985年在意大利斯塔瓦，一座建在山坡上的大坝垮塌造成的泥石流以每小时90公里的速度冲下山谷，造成268人死亡。该项目将与北京中国矿业大学和戈尔德公司合作，研究地震荷载下尾矿材料的液化。这项研究将是一项实验性质的研究，通过在岩土工程研究实验室进行先进的实验室测试。

The residual waste from mining processes, or tailings, are most commonly disposed of by mixing the ground rock with water and pumping them as a slurry into large lagoons retained by dams constructed from the coarser part of the tailings. The very loose state of the sediments in the lagoon promotes their liquefaction, so that the consequences of dam failure can be very severe, through loss of life, homes, livelihoods and widespread environmental damage from the release often of millions of cubic metres of waste. Since 1917 there have been more than 245 tailings dam incidents. The failure in 2008 in Xiangfen County, China, caused 277 deaths, but these disasters are by no means restricted to developing economies, and in 1985 at Stava, Italy, the debris flow resulting from the failure of a dam built on a hillside travelled down the valley at 90km/h killing 268. The project will investigate the liquefaction of tailings materials under seismic loading, collaborating with the China University of Mining and Technology, Beijing and Golder associates. The research will be of an experimental nature, by means of advanced laboratory testing in the Geotechnical Engineering Research Laboratory.