Unsaturated soil properties of centrifuged oil sand fine tailings

John Owolagba, Shahid Azam

In the proceedings of: GeoMontréal 2013: 66th Canadian Geotechnical Conference; 11th joint with IAH-CNC

Session: Mining Geotechnics III

ABSTRACT: The main objective of this study was to determine the unsaturated soil properties of oil sand fine tailings after centrifugation, that is, at a solids content of 60% (void ratio = 1.5). The soil water characteristic curve plotted using the degree of saturation resulted in an air entry value of 1000 kPa. Likewise, the shrinkage curve showed a J-shaped pattern with most of the volume decrease occurring during normal shrinkage. With increasing suction, the unsaturated hydraulic conductivity decreased by several orders of magnitude from a saturated value of 2 x 10-10 m/s.

RÉSUMÉ: L'objectif principal de cette étude était de déterminer les propriétés des sols non saturés de sable bitumineux. Après centrifugation, c'est-à-dire pour une teneur en solides de 60% (taux de vide = 1,5). La courbe caractéristique de l'eau du sol tracée en utilisant le degré de saturation a donné une valeur d'entrée d'air de 1000 kPa. De même, la courbe de rétrécissement a la forme de la lettre « J », avec la plus diminution de volume survenant au cours du rétrécissement normal. Avec l'augmentation de succion, la conductivité hydraulique non saturée a diminué de plusieurs ordres de grandeur à partir de sa valeur saturée de 2 x 10-10 m/s.

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