Assessment of shear stiffness and damping variations in undrained cyclic triaxial tests of iron ore tailings
Assessment of shear stiffness and damping variations in undrained cyclic triaxial tests of iron ore tailings
Tailings dams pose severe risks to society and to the environment. Many failures occur worldwide, suggesting that their behaviour remains poorly understood. This is particularly true in the case of tailings dams built in seismically active regions, where the ability to properly understand and model the behaviour of ore tailings under cyclic loading is critical. This paper aims to clarify the undrained cyclic behaviour of iron ore tailings observed in triaxial tests on reconstituted samples of mining waste obtained from Torre de Moncorvo Iron Mine. Firstly, the undrained cyclic behaviour of this unconventional geomaterial is compared with that of other typical soils, including loose granular soils. Secondly, the degradation of the shear stiffness and the increase in the damping ratio with the number of loading cycles are assessed using suitable software created to compute the values of these properties relative to each hysteretic loading cycle automatically. In addition, the challenges in analysing real undrained cyclic triaxial tests on iron ore tailings are discussed in detail. Based on the results presented in the paper, the authors expect to shed further light on the undrained cyclic response of ore tailings under seismic loading and the degradation of the mechanical properties, namely the stiffness and the damping, caused in each loading cycle.
J. C. Lourenco; David Camacho; Paulo A. L. F. Coelho
18th European Conference on Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering (ECSMGE2024)
C - Risk analysis and safety evaluation
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