Numerical Investigation on the Impact of Tailings Slurry on Catch Dams Built at the Downstream of a Breached Tailings Pond

Abstract

Tailings storage facilities (TSFs) are known as a time-bomb. The numerous failures of TSFs and the heavy catastrophic consequences associated with each failure of TSFs indicate that preventing measures are necessary for existing TSFs. One of the preventing measures is to construct catch dams along the downstream near TSFs. The design of catch dams requires a good understanding of the dynamic interaction between the tailings slurry flow and the catch dams. There are, however, very few studies on this aspect. In this study, a numerical code, named LS-DYNA, that is based on a combination of smoothed particle hydrodynamics and a finite element method, was used. The numerical modeling shows that the tailings slurry flow can generally be divided into four stages. In terms of stability analysis, a catch dam should be built either very close to or very far from the TSF. When the catch dam with an upstream slope of a very small inclination angle is too close to the tailings pond, it can be necessary to build a very high catch dam or a secondary catch dam. As the impacting force can increase and decrease with the fluctuations back-and-forth of the tailings slurry flow, the ideal inclination angle of the upstream slope of the catch dam is between 30° and 37.5°, while the construction of a catch dam with a vertical upstream slope should be avoided. However, a catch dam with steeper upstream slopes seems to be more efficient in intercepting tailings flow and allowing the people downstream to have more time for evacuation. All these aspects need to be considered to optimize the design of catch dams.