Abstract
Increasing the desiccation of slurry naturally through evaporation and inhibiting of cracking with a high water content tailings slurry deposited in a large open area reduce the impacts and risks of tailings consolidation and heavy metal pollution to the environment and engineering structures. In order to investigate the influences of fly ash which is a waste byproduct on the water evaporation and cracking of tailings slurry, different amounts of fly ash (0, 10, 20, 30, 40, and 50% by weight) are mixed with the tailings slurry to produce the samples, which are then tested in the field. The cracking properties are subsequently examined based on variations in water loss. The development of cracks is quantitatively analyzed by using a digital image processing technique, which shows that the optimum amount of fly ash would accelerate evaporation and inhibit the development of desiccation cracks. The results are then plotted, and it can be observed that the samples with no fly ash and 10% fly ash have the longest crack development time. The test results indicate that the crack initiation of samples with different amounts of fly ash is in the following order: 0 > 20% > 10% > 30% > 40% > 50%. When the water content of the samples with no fly ash and 10% fly ash becomes constant, the fractal dimensions of the cracks are 1.587 and 1.577, respectively. The fractal dimensions of the samples with 20%, 30%, 40%, and 50% fly ash are 1.494, 1.456, 1.545, and 1.566, respectively. The optimum amount of fly ash is therefore 10% by weight in this study, which may effectively accelerate the natural desiccation and evaporation of tailings slurry with a high water content, and inhibit cracking. The optimum fly ash percentage thus provides a balance between improving the engineering properties of the tailings and cost.
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We would also like acknowledge the anonymous reviewers for their invaluable comments and suggestions that led to significant improvements in the paper.
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The authors received financial support from the Education Department Henan Province: Key Scientific Research Project of Colleges and Universities in Henan Province (CN) under grant no. 21A410003.
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Yuan, S., Duan, W. & Liu, Y. Effects of recycled fly ash on desiccation cracking of mine tailings with high water content. Arab J Geosci 14, 2828 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12517-021-09225-2
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12517-021-09225-2