Large-strain consolidation modeling of mine waste tailings

Abstract

Sustainable management of mine waste tailings during operation, closure, and reclamation requires a clear understanding of modeling the large-strain consolidation behaviour of these loose and toxic slurries. A state-of-the-art was presented focusing on process phenomenology and coordinate systems for tailings dewatering thereby devising a simple constitutive equation with a small number of input parameters. A one-dimensional self-weight consolidation model for quiescent conditions was developed using the finite element method. Test data on oil sand fine tailings were used for model training and predictions were made for an upper bound and a lower bound of various tailings types using a 1 m high hypothetical column.