NSERC/COSIA Industrial Research Chair in Oil Sand Tailings Geotechnique

油砂被视为加拿大经济的重要组成部分。与此同时，油砂作业对环境的影响也在不断增加。尾矿库几乎完全用于废物管理，目前这些尾矿库的总占地面积超过220平方公里。加工砂矿产生由水、沙、粉砂和粘土(或称“细粉”)组成的尾矿浆，以及少量残留沥青。尾矿被排放到沉淀池中，使砂粒快速沉降到海滩上，剩余的细粒尾矿沉淀在池塘中。加拿大油砂创新联盟(COSIA)和UAlberta合作显著提高了尾矿库的回收速度。拟议的研究计划包括互补的主题，整合了来自UAlberta和行业的多学科专业知识。这项研究建议开发和应用新的和创新的岩土技术来设计油砂行业的干式堆积物，同时调查当前油砂尾矿管理和复垦战略的岩土和生物地球化学方面。拟议的研究方案的重点是：主题1：干式堆积库的尾矿和覆盖层的工程混合物主题2：生物-地球化学相互作用对软尾矿的岩土行为的影响主题3：覆盖软尾矿库这些相辅相成的主题旨在开展研究，展望尾矿库的未来，同时为直接/临时挑战提供研究。预计将有15名高素质的人员通过该研究计划被背叛。此外，工业界和学术界之间的合作将使流体细粒尾矿的行为和管理得到根本发现，使工程学科受益，并巩固艾伯塔大学和加拿大在采矿复垦和油砂尾矿地质技术方面的国际领先地位。

The oil sands are viewed as a vital component to the Canadian economy. At the same time, the environmentalimpacts of oil sands operations are also growing. Tailings impoundments are used almost exclusively for wastemanagement, and the combined footprint for these impoundments is currently more than 220 km2. Processedoil sands ore yields a tailings slurry composed of water, sand, silt and clay (or "fines"), and a small amount ofresidual bitumen. The tailings are discharged into a settling basin, allowing the sand fraction to settle quicklyon the beach with the balance of fine tailings settling in the pond.The Canadian Oil Sands Innovation Alliance (COSIA) and have partnered with UAlberta to significantlyadvance the rate at which tailings ponds can be reclaimed. The proposed research program consists ofcomplementary themes that integrate multidisciplinary expertise from UAlberta and industry. The researchproposes the development and application of new and innovative geotechniques to design dry stacked depositsfor the oil sands industry while simultaneously investigating geotechnical and bio-geochemical aspects ofcurrent oil sands tailings management and reclamation strategies. The proposed research program focuses on:Theme 1: Engineered Mixtures of Tailings and Overburden for Dry Stacked DepositsTheme 2: Influence of Bio-geo-chemical Interactions on the Geotechnical Behaviour of Soft TailingsTheme 3: Capping Soft Tailings DepositsThese complementary themes aim to conduct research that looks to the future of tailings deposits, whileproviding research for immediate/interim challenges. It is anticipated that 15 highly qualified personnel will betrained through the research program. Further, the collaboration between industry and academia will enablefundamental discoveries for the behaviour and improved management of fluid fine tailings, benefitting theengineering discipline, and bolster the University of Alberta and Canada's position as an international leader inmining reclamation and oil sands tailings geotechnique.