Abstract
The proper assessment of stability of overburden (OB) dump slopes for the prevention of unforeseeable incidents has become a crucial issue for the coal mine industries across the globe. Coal mine OB is a highly heterogeneous material varying in shape, size and mineralogical composition. In the present study, Voronoi tessellation scheme is adopted for the simulation of OB dump materials through the programmable discrete element–based software, Universal Distinct Element Code (UDEC). A probabilistic investigation based on the concept of factorial design approach is carried out to consider the uncertainty of heterogeneous material parameters. A prediction model has been framed for the evaluation of factor of safety (FOS) of the coal mine OB dump slope taking into account, the aspect of its heterogeneity. The influence of various material parameters on the stability of the OB dump slope is also investigated. Finally, the probability of failure of the OB dump slope has been evaluated using Monte-Carlo technique.
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14 May 2022
A Correction to this paper has been published: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10064-022-02737-5
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Authors are thankful to the anonymous reviewers for their comments to improve the manuscript.
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The first author acknowledges the financial support provided by Ministry of Human Resource Development, Government of India. The second author acknowledges Coal India Limited for providing financial assistance for the research (Project No. CIL/R&D/01/73/2021). The third author acknowledges the partial financial support provided by the Ministry of Human Resource Development, Government of India, under SPARC project titled “Geoenvironmental and Geotechnical Issues of Coal Mine Overburden”.
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The original online version of this article was revised: The online version of this article contains an error. In the Fig. 10a, on the right side vertical axis, some line numbers have inadvertently inserted. This has been modified.
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Mohanty, M., Sarkar, R. & Das, S.K. Probabilistic assessment of effects of heterogeneity on the stability of coal mine overburden dump slopes through discrete element framework. Bull Eng Geol Environ 81, 228 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10064-022-02720-0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10064-022-02720-0