Deformation behaviour of a slope backfilled from intermediate soil under dynamic load




Deformation behaviour of a slope backfilled from intermediate soil under dynamic load


In the Rhenish mining area in Germany, lignite is excavated in three active opencast mines. The areas occupied by these mines must be restored after the end of active mining in year 2030. Due to the volume deficit resulting from the mining, the area cannot be completely backfilled and pits remain. In these pits large artificial lakes will be created. These lakes will be surrounded by embankment systems consisting of several individual slopes connected by berms. During excavation several geological layers are intersected, and the different soils are mixed. In that way artificial cohesive and non-cohesive soil materials are generated, which are deposited on the dump side forming the future embankments with a defined soil profile. The opencast mines under consideration are located in an area with seismic activity. Thus, the stability of the embankments under earthquake loading must be proven. This is done using pseudo-static approaches and numerical simulations with advanced constitutive models. To validate these numerical models, a series of centrifuge model tests were carried out at the University of Gustave Eiffel in Nantes, investigating the deformation behaviour of a single slope under dynamic loading. The model slope has been formed from a non-cohesive soil taken from the dump side of an opencast mine. This article focuses on the instrumentation and installation of the model tests. Furthermore, results regarding the deformation of the slope surface due to saturation, spin-up and base shaking are presented.



Frederik Koch; D. Koenig; Sandra Escoffier; Zheng Li; T. Wichtmann; Paul Raabe


5th European Conference on Physical Modelling in Geotechnics (ECPMG2024)



Geotechnical infrastructure



https://doi.org/10.53243/ECPMG2024-126