Stability of coarse mine waste dumps
Date
2015-08-07
Authors
Hughes, Trevor Stuart
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Abstract
It is economically desirable to build dumps of coarse mine waste
as high a, possible. A review of available literature indicated
that a significant decrease in the strength of coarse material
occurs at high stress levels. A literature survey was conducted
to establish possible dump failure modes and methods of slope
stability analysis appropriate to dumps.
Consolidated, drained triaxial tests on several mine waste materials
have shown that above a normal stress of 1600 kPa, slight curvature
of the Mohr strength envelope occurs. However, sample stability
analyses show that there is little or no difference in factors of
safety for typical dump slopes, obtained by using a constant
average friction angle, or by using variable friction angles derived
from a power equation which describes the curved strength envelope.
Thus it is concluded that the curvature of the strength envelope,
has little influence on the factor of safety of dump slopes.
Description
A dissertation submitted to the faculty of engineering, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, in partial fulfilment for the degree of master of science in engineering
JULY, 1984