A simplified approach to assess seismic stability of tailings dams

• Main Authors: Sanjay Nimbalkar, V.S. Ramakrishna Annapareddy, Anindya Pain
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Elsevier 2018-12-01
• Series: Journal of Rock Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering
• Online Access: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1674775518301987

In the zones of high seismic activity, tailings dam should be assessed for the stability against earthquake forces. In the present paper, a simplified method is proposed to compute the factor of safety of tailings dams. The strain-dependent dynamic properties are used to assess the stability of tailings dams under seismic conditions. The effect of foundation soil properties on the seismic stability of tailings dams is studied using the proposed method. For the given input parameters, the factor of safety for low-frequency input motions is nearly 26% lower than that for high-frequency input excitations. The impedance ratio and the depth of foundation have significant effect on the seismic factor of safety of tailings dams. The results from the proposed method are well compared with the existing pseudo-static method of analysis. Tailings dams are vulnerable to damage for low-frequency input motions. Keywords: Tailings dam, Horizontal slice method (HSM), Limit equilibrium, Strain-dependent property, Pseudo-static method