Safety Evaluation of the Zhaoli Tailings Dam a Seepage, Deformation and Stability Analysis with Geostudio
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UPTEC ES 16 031 Examensarbete 30 hp September 2016 Safety Evaluation of the Zhaoli Tailings Dam A seepage, deformation and stability analysis with GeoStudio Johan Bäckström Malin Ljungblad Abstract Safety Evaluation of the Zhaoli Tailings Dam Johan Bäckström and Malin Ljungblad Teknisk- naturvetenskaplig fakultet UTH-enheten The mining industry produce large amount of mine waste, also called tailings, which must be kept in tailings dams. In this thesis the safety and stability of a tailings dam Besöksadress: have been studied, where some of the tailing material is being used as filling material. Ångströmlaboratoriet Lägerhyddsvägen 1 The dam has been modelled and simulated using the software Geostudio. To evaluate Hus 4, Plan 0 the safety and stability of the dam seepage, stress and strain as well as slope stability have been simulated with SEEP/W, SIGMA/W and SLOPE/W, which are different Postadress: modules in the Geostudio software. Box 536 751 21 Uppsala The results show that the dam is stable for all tested scenarios. However, in this Telefon: thesis many simplifications and assumptions have been made so it is recommended to 018 – 471 30 03 do a more detailed study to confirm the safety of the dam. The dam should also be Telefax: simulated for earthquakes before a definite evaluation can be made. 018 – 471 30 00 This master thesis has been conducted in cooperation with Vattenfall AB, Energiforsk Hemsida: AB, Uppsala University and Tsinghua University in Beijing, China. The project has http://www.teknat.uu.se/student been carried out on the planned Zhaoli ditch tailing dam in the Shanxi Province, China. Handledare: James Yang Ämnesgranskare: Per Norrlund Examinator: Petra Jönsson ISSN: 1650-8300, UPTEC ES 16 031 Sammanfattning Detta examensarbete har utf¨ortsi samarbete med Energiforsk, Vattenfall, Tsinghua universitet och Uppsala universitet. Arbetet har bedrivits under m˚anaderna januari till juni 2016, med den st¨orsta delen av arbetet utf¨ort vid Tsinghua universitet under mars till juni. Syftet har varit att utv¨ardera s¨akerheten av en planerad gruvdamm som konstruerats med gruvmaterial som fyllnadsmaterial utifr˚ananalys av genomfl¨ode, sp¨anningar, deformering och stabiliteten av en planerad gruvdamm i Kina. Den f¨oreslagna gruvdammen Zhaoli ¨ar planerad att byggas i anslutning till j¨arnmalmsgruvan Daxigou i provinsen Shanxi i norra Kina. Dammens nu- varande design ¨ar enligt uppstr¨omsmetoden och konstruktionen ¨ar planerad iettflertalstegmedenslutligh¨ojdp˚aungef¨ar190meter. Simuleringarna har genomf¨ortsi GeoStudio f¨ortv˚aolika scenarion som utg¨or tv˚aplanerade h¨ojder i dammkonstruktionen; vid h¨ojden 110 meter och vid h¨ojden 190 meter. B˚adascenariona simulerades f¨ornormala och ¨oversv¨ammade driftf¨orh˚allanden, vilket motsvarade olika maximalt till˚atnavattenniv˚aer i dammarna. Resultaten visar att den studerade gruvdammen ¨ars¨aker i de tv˚asimulerade scenariona, b˚ade vid normala och ¨oversv¨ammade driftf¨orh˚allanden. Hastigheten p˚agenomstr¨omning ¨ar l˚ag och deformationen ¨ar ¨overkomlig, vilket inte b¨or orsaka stabilitetsrisker i dammen. Den mest kritiska ytan i dammens slut- tning har en s¨akerhetsfaktor (factor of safety) p˚a1.5 eller h¨ogre, vilket ¨ar h¨ogre¨ande v¨arden som kr¨avsenligt kinesiska standarder f¨ors¨aker dammkon- struktion. i Acknowledgement This master degree thesis project has been carried out at the department of Hydraulic Engineering at Tsinghua University in Beijing, China from March to May 2016. First of all, we would like to thank our supervising Professor Liming Hu for inviting us to Tsinghua University and his group of Ph.D. and M.Eng. students in the Department of Hydraulic Engineering. Even though the Pro- fessor had a full schedule, he always took time to answer our questions and to give us advice on how to proceed in our project. We would also like to thank Dr. Wu and our co-working student Ms. Dantong Lin for all the help throughout the project. We are very grateful to the group of Ph.D. and M.Eng. students that we had the pleasure to getting to know during our stay at Tsinghua University. They did not only give us help and support on our work on the thesis, but did also help us with arrangements of social activities and trips. Further- more, we would like to state our greatest gratitude and many thanks to Mr. Yang Yang and Mr. Luo Xiaoyu for their kind treatment, their advice and friendship during our time in China. We would also like to thank and state our gratitude to Professor James Yang from Vattenfall R & D and Kungliga Tekniska H¨ogskolan for arranging this master thesis project and making this invaluable experience possible. We are also very thankful for the help, feedback and guidance that have been given by Doctor Per Norrlund, our supervisor at Uppsala University. The project is within the frame of dam safety and is a diploma work program funded by Energiforsk AB and managed by Professor James Yang. The direc- tor of this diploma work program is Ms. Sara Sandberg. Uppsala University have also contributed with funding to this master degree thesis, which has enabled the accomplishment of the project. Beijing, May 27th 2016 Johan B¨ackstr¨om and Malin Ljungblad ii Nomenclature Denomination Symbol Unit Greek Angle of shearing resistance φ − Angle of shearing resistance e↵ective φ0 − 3 Buoyant unit weight of the soil γ0 N/m E↵ective normal stress at failure σf0 Pa E↵ective stress σx0 Pa Friction angle φ − Major principal stress σ1 Pa Minor principal stress σ3 Pa Mobilized shear strength ⌧mob Pa Normal stress acting on x-plane σx Pa Normal stress acting on y-plane σy Pa Normal stress acting on z-plane σz Pa Normal stress at failure σf Pa Poisson’s ratio ⌫ − Shear strength ⌧f Pa Shear stress ⌧ij Pa Strain in x-direction ✏ x − Strain in y-direction ✏y − 3 Unit weight of saturated soil γsat N/m Unit weight of dry material γN/m3 3 Unit weight of water γw N/m Viscosity ⌘Ns/m2 Volumetric water content ✓m3/m3 Latin Applied boundary flux Qm2/s Atmospheric pressure Pa Pa Confined Young’s modulus Es Pa Coefficient depending on soil skeleton Km2 Coefficient of permeability km/s Cohesion intercept cPa Cohesion intercept e↵ective c0 Pa Cohesive strength ccu Pa Cross sectional area Am2 Discharge velocity vm/s Elevation head above a chosen datum zm Exponent defining influence of confining pressure z0 m Height of dry material h1 m Height of saturated material h2 m iii Hydraulic conductivity in x-direction kx m/s Hydraulic conductivity in y-direction ky m/s Horizontal displacement us m Hydraulic gradient i − Initial tangent modulus Ei Pa Loading modulus number KL Pa Pore water pressure uPa Ratio of asymptote for hyperbolic curve and shear strength R f − Tangent modulus Et Pa Time ts Total head Hm Vertical displacement ws m Volume of water flowing per unit time qm3/s Young’s modulus EPa iv Glossary Consolidation Consolidation is the process of a long term gradual decrease in volume of a soil due to a decrease in pore water in the soil. The reduction of pore water occurs when soil are subjected to stress that pack the soil particles together, causing the water to squeeze out of the soil. Datum Datum is a baseline or a reference that can be chosen at any elevation. When calculating values of di↵erent points and parameters these can be defined rel- ative to the datum. Hydraulic head Hydraulic head, or the piezometric head, is the measurement of the pressure in a liquids above a set datum. It is constituted by the pressure head and the elevation head. Liquefaction When a saturated or partially saturated soil behaves like a liquid due to extensive losses of shear strength due to sudden changes in stress condition. Changes in stress conditions could be caused by earthquakes etc. Mine tailings Mohr’s circles are used when determining stress distributions in a rotated coordinate system graphically. Mohr-Coulomb theory Describes the response of di↵erent materials when they are subjected to shear stress and normal stress. Materials often obey this theory, even if only for a small part, which can be seen in their linear shear failure envelopes. Permeability In earth science, permeability is the measure of the ability of a material to transmit a fluid. For soil and water the permeability is called hydraulic con- ductivity. Poisson’s ratio Poisson’s ratio is used for materials displacement in elasticity theory. The ratio express the relative contraction strain applied normal to the load and the relative extension strain applied in the direction of the load. The Pois- son’s ratio is required in order to solve certain stress equations. Phreatic surface The term phreatic is used in hydrology and the earth sciences to refer to matters relating to ground water (an aquifer) below the water table. The v phreatic surface indicates the location of the pore water pressure under at- mospheric conditions, i.e. when the pressure head is zero. This surface is the same as the water table, or ground water level as it is also called. The pore water pressure is positive below the phreatic surface and negative above the phreatic surface. Seepage Seepage can be defined as the flow of liquid through porous media, e.g. soil. Seepage characteristics are very important in many soil structures, such as dams and embankments. Shear failure envelope The shear failure envelope is a function of stresses and material parameters which can be used when solving material failure problems. The envelope is expressed in terms of normal and shear stresses which acts on a plane that is inclined in the same direction as the principal stress.