Abstract
Tailings disposal is a major concern of the mining industry worldwide. After the recent upstream dam failures, the main tailings disposal method studied in Brazil is dry stacking. The mechanical behaviour of tailings disposed of by dry stacking can be enhanced by ground improvement techniques such as compaction effort, cement, and fibre insertion. Accordingly, the study was carried out herein to analyse the mechanical behaviour of a fibre-reinforced cemented iron ore tailings (IOT) through unconfined compression tests in specimens moulded at different points on the compaction curve using 1%, 3% and 5% of Portland cement and zero and 0.5% of polypropylene fibres as an alternative to enhance the overall performance of dry tailings storage facilities. The results showed that compacted fibre-reinforced cemented IOT strength and stiffness vary according to the dry unit weight and moisture content moulding point on the standard Proctor compaction curve. In addition, adding fibres to the compacted cemented IOT turns the brittle behaviour into a ductile one, especially for 1% of cement. Such enhancement is fundamental to guarantee the safety of iron dry stacks. Also, failure patterns are directly related to the moulding point on the compaction curve. Moreover, adding fibres has increased the strength of cemented and uncemented IOT, thus allowing the adoption of smaller cement contents. Therefore, for the first time, the behaviour of fibre-reinforced cemented IOT was presented and its dependency on moulding characteristics based on compaction curves position.
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Some or all data, or models, used during the study are available from the corresponding author by request.
Abbreviations
- ASTM:
-
American society for testing and materials
- C :
-
Cement
- D R :
-
Relative density
- E 50 :
-
Young’s modulus
- e 0 :
-
Initial void ratio
- e max :
-
Maximum void ratio
- e min :
-
Minimum void ratio
- F :
-
Fibres
- I B :
-
Brittleness index
- I fc :
-
Fibre/cement strength index
- IOT:
-
Iron ore tailings
- OMC:
-
Optimum moisture content
- q u :
-
Unconfined compressive strength
- q peak :
-
Peak strength
- q ult :
-
Ultimate strength
- UCS:
-
Unconfined compressive strength
- USCS:
-
Unified soil classification system
- UU:
-
Unconsolidated undrained
- X :
-
Cement content
- XRD:
-
X-ray diffractogram
- XRF:
-
X-ray fluorescence
- Y :
-
Fibre content
- γ d :
-
Dry unit weight
- γ dmax :
-
Maximum dry unit weight
- w :
-
Moulding moisture content
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Acknowledgements
The authors wish to express their gratitude to the Brazilian Research Council/Brazilian Ministry of Science and Technology (CNPq/MCT) and VALE S.A. for the financial support to the research group.
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Guedes, J.P.C., Silvani, C., Carvalho, J.V.d. et al. Mechanical Behaviour of Fibre-Reinforced Cemented Iron Ore Tailings Across the Compaction Curve. Geotech Geol Eng (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10706-023-02736-7
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10706-023-02736-7