Modeling of tailings flow using Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics for risk assessment of tailings dam breaches

Poulad Daneshvar, Attila M. Zsaki

In the proceedings of: GEO2011: 64th Canadian Geotechnical Conference, 14th Pan-American Conference on Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering, 5th Pan-American Conference on Teaching and Learning of Geotechnical Engineering

Session: Landslides

ABSTRACT: The potential risk associated with tailings dam failures can be considerable due to the release of toxic chemicals into the environment. The extent of outflow and region of potential damage caused by tailings dam failures can be difficult to assess due to the inherent uncertainty in the estimation of tailings properties and the interaction of tailings flow with the topology of the terrain. The tailings flow is modeled using smoothed particle hydrodynamics (SPH) to capture the evolving nature of the flow. Due to the large number of parameters involved, a back-analysis of literature-reported dam failures was used for the testing and validation of the applicability of SPH method, with the results showing a considerable agreement with the literature-reported ones. Thus, the use of SPH simulations could enable analysis of the extent of tailings outflow for the design of future tailings facilities and to assess the potential damage arising from failure of existing ones. PRESENTACIONES TÉCNICAS El riesgo potencial asociado a la falla de represas de relave puede ser considerable debido a la descarga de químicos tóxicos al ambiente. La extensión de esta descarga y región de daño potencial causado por estas fallas pueden ser difíciles de evaluar debido a la incertidumbre inherente en la estimación de las propiedades de los relaves y a la interacción de este fluido con la topografía del terreno. El flujo de relaves es modelado utilizando hidrodinámica de partículas suavizadas (HPS) para captar el avance natural del flujo. Debido a la gran cantidad de parámetros involucrados, un análisis inverso de varias fallas en represas reportadas fueron utilizadas para comprobar y validar la aplicabilidad del método HPS. Los resultados mostraron una considerable concordancia con aquellos reportados en la literatura. Por lo tanto, el uso de simulaciones HPS puede permitir el pronóstico de la extensión de la descarga en el diseño de futuras instalaciones de desechos de relave y para evaluar el daño potencial que puede provocar la falla de represas existentes.

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