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Geomechanics and Engineering
  Volume 25, Number 2, April25 2021 , pages 159-170
DOI: https://doi.org/10.12989/gae.2021.25.2.159
 


On the effect of void ratio and particle breakage on saturated hydraulic conductivity of tailing materials
Changkun Ma, Chao Zhang, Qinglin Chen, Zhenkai Pan and Lei Ma

 
Abstract
    Particle size of tailings in different areas of dams varies due to sedimentation and separation. Saturated hydraulic conductivity of high-stacked talings materials are seriously affected by void ratio and particle breakage. Conjoined consolidation permeability tests were carried out using a self-developed high-stress permeability and consolidation apparatus. The hydraulic conductivity decreases nonlinearly with the increase of consolidation pressure. The seepage pattern of coarse-particle tailings is channel flow, and the seepage pattern of fine-particle tailings is scattered flow. The change rate of hydraulic conductivity of tailings with different particle sizes under high consolidation pressure tends to be identical. A hydraulic conductivity hysteresis is found in coarse-particle tailings. The hydraulic conductivity hysteresis is more obvious when the water head is lower. A new hydraulic conductivity-void ratio equation was derived by introducing the concept of effective void ratio and breakage index. The equation integrated the hydraulic conductivity equation with different particle sizes over a wide range of consolidation pressures.
 
Key Words
    tailings; effective void ratio; particle breakage; hydraulic conductivity
 
Address
Changkun Ma: 1.) State Key Laboratory of Geomechanics and Geotechnical Engineering, Institute of Rock and Soil Mechanics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Wuhan, China
2.) University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China

Chao Zhang, Zhenkai Pan and Lei Ma: State Key Laboratory of Geomechanics and Geotechnical Engineering, Institute of Rock and Soil Mechanics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Wuhan, China

Qinglin Chen: Jiangxi University of Science and Technology, Ganzhou, Jiangxi, China
 

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