Simulation on particle crushing of tailings material under high pressure

Abstract

With continuous increase of the high tailings dam, it has an important practical and theoretical significance to study the mechanical characteristics of the tailings material under high pressures. It is indicated that strength envelopes of the tailings material have a remarkable nonlinear characteristics through the triaxial test under high pressures. A further study stated that the particle crushing has a critical effect on the mechanical behavior of the tailings material. In order to quantitatively research its influence, the grain size distribution of the tailings material is analyzed for pre-and post-test and the particle crushing of the tailings material is measured. The particle flow code is employed to simulate and monitor the sample during testing. Firstly, a model which considers the particle crushing is built under the plane strain condition. Then, a series of biaxial numerical tests of the tailings specimen are simulated by using the model. It is found that the simulation result agrees with the triaxial test. Finally, a law between the particle crushing and strain of the tailings material under different confining pressures is obtained. © 2013 AIP Publishing LLC.