A Comprehensive Review of Large Strain Consolidation Testing for Application in Oil Sands Mine Tailings

Abstract

Oil sand tailings are a mixture of sand, fines, water, and a residual amount of un-extracted bitumen in varying proportions. Tailings management is highly dependent on the consolidation behavior of the tailings. Although a great deal of work on this sector has been performed to study the consolidation behavior of oil sands tailings, it continues to play a critical role in quantifying the long-term geotechnical stability of tailings storage facilities. A review of large strain consolidation testing that exists, whether in the industry or in academia, has been compiled and presented in this manuscript to illustrate the advantages and drawbacks of measuring consolidation behavior of tailings using these tests. For oil sands mine tailings, it has been concluded that the conventional oedometer consolidation test can result in significant errors in quantifying the consolidation behavior. Conversely, testing procedures such as multi-step loading large strain consolidation tests, large slurry consolidometer tests, centrifuge testing, and seepage induced consolidation tests are widely employed to quantify the consolidation behavior of oil sands tailings.