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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Earth Sci.
Sec. Earth and Planetary Materials
Volume 13 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/feart.2025.1477752
The influence of tailings concentration and waste rock medium length on horizontal seepage deformation
Provisionally accepted- 1 Nanchang University, Nanchang, China
- 2 School of Hydraulic and Ecological Engineering, Nanchang Institute of Technology, Nanchang, Jiangxi Province, China
The technique of storing tailings with a waste rock embankment network integrates the high waste dumping site and high tailings pond engineering into one, effectively reducing the construction footprint. However, the significant particle size difference between waste rock and tailings often leads to seepage damage. Therefore, understanding the development mechanism of seepage deformation in tailings stored with waste rock embankment networks is crucial. This study examines the influence of different slurry concentrations (5%, 10%) and waste rock media lengths (30 cm, 60 cm, 90 cm) on the infiltration and deformation of tailings within a waste rock medium. A specially designed infiltration test device was employed to simulate the process, and a three-dimensional visual dynamic microscopic simulation of tailings transport in waste rock was performed using CFD-DEM coupling. The study investigated the contact loss mechanism of tailings in the waste rock medium and the particle transport behavior through a combination of macroscopic and microscopic analyses. Results indicate that at 600 s, with a 60 cm media length, the filtration rates for 5% and 10% slurry concentrations were 15.2% and 6.6%, respectively. For a 10% concentration slurry at 600 s, the filtration rates for 30 cm, 60 cm, and 90 cm media lengths were 4.2%, 6.6%, and 15.9%, respectively. The experimental and numerical simulation results demonstrate that higher tailings concentrations lead to a higher likelihood of clogging in the waste rock medium, reducing the cumulative filtrate mass. The filtration rate initially rises sharply, peaks, and then decreases rapidly before stabilizing. Moreover, shorter waste rock media lengths result in earlier filtration onset, lower peak filtration rates, and smaller stable filtration rates in the later stage. These findings provide valuable references for the future engineering design of tailings ponds utilizing waste rock embankments.
Keywords: waste rock dyke network, infiltration deformation, waste rock media, CFD-DEM coupling, Contact loss
Received: 08 Aug 2024; Accepted: 18 Feb 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Mingqiang, Ouyang, Xu, Wang, Lei and Lin. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
Min Ouyang, Nanchang University, Nanchang, China
Jiayu Xu, Nanchang University, Nanchang, China
Sijun Wang, Nanchang University, Nanchang, China
Zhicong Lei, Nanchang University, Nanchang, China
Xinxin Lin, School of Hydraulic and Ecological Engineering, Nanchang Institute of Technology, Nanchang, Jiangxi Province, China
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