Evaluation of strength and durability of compacted bauxite tailings treated with cement

Abstract

Improving soil properties by adding stabilizing materials, such as cement, has garnered significant attention from researchers, particularly for enhancing soils often deemed poor geotechnical quality. This approach becomes even more advantageous when applied to increase the stability of mining tailings deposits and ensure environmental safety. This study investigates the effects of cement addition and dry density on the strength and durability of compacted bauxite tailings-cement blends. The porosity/cement index, widely used in soil-cement mixture research, was adopted to analyze the parameters that control the strength and durability of these blends. Results demonstrate that increasing cement content and dry density significantly improves unconfined compressive strength (q_u) and reduces accumulated mass loss (ALM) during wet/dry cycles. The porosity/cement index effectively describes the variations in q_u and ALM, as expressed by an empirical equation, which can be highly beneficial for the practical application of treated mining tailings as construction materials.