Cyclic liquefaction in transitional and non-transitional tailings

Abstract

Tailings have previously been identified as having the types of mixed mineralogies and gradings that can make them susceptible to having non-unique critical states and normally compressed states in laboratory element tests. This paper addresses how this mode of behaviour would affect their resistance to undrained cyclic loading, contrasting two triaxial studies, one on a tailings that has a conventional behaviour and one transitional. To demonstrate the influence of transitional behaviour it was necessary to create samples with as wide a range of initial specific volumes as possible, while trying keep the sample preparation methods the same for loose and dense samples. It was also necessary to examine the cyclic data in non-conventional ways, notably in the volumetric plane to highlight better the effects of initial sample specific volume. It is shown that, as previously determined for monotonic loading, the initial density has much less influence on the cyclic behaviour of a soil with transitional behaviour than it would for a conventional soil, and it is instead the stress history that is very much more important. Samples following their respective normal compression lines exhibit similar behaviour, but overconsolidation significantly enhances resistance and a sample that arrives at a given state by the undrained reduction of p′ due to cycling also has a much higher resistance.