The validity of laboratory flume data for predicting beach slopes of thickened tailings deposits

Abstract

One method for the placement of thickened lailings is the cenrral discharge technique. The beach slopes achieved with this melhod have generally been in the order of 2 to 3%. With such small beach slopes, it is important to be able to predict the slope angles accurately. This is often done using laboralory flume lests. However, these predictions have tended to overestimale slope angles. This paper presents a model that takes account of the wall friction in flume tests and illustrates the folly of using flume tests indiscriminately. The model does not account for issues such as deposition rate or initial velocity, but serves to quantify the potential errors of using flume data for direct extrapolation of field applications.