Rheological Properties of Tailings Materials
Aditi Sharma
M.tech, Geotechnical Engineering
IIT Bhubaneswar, India
Pratik Goel
M.tech, Geotechnical Engineering
IIT Bhubaneswar, India
Abstract:
Mining and mineral extraction is very important
sector of economy but along with that it also leads to production
of huge amount of wastes which is called tailings. The main
issue is the storage or the disposal of the tailings because if it is
not handled carefully it can lead to huge damages. Thus, this
report mainly focuses on the flow properties of the tailings what
remedial measures can be taken to reduce the failures if it is
stored in reservoirs. Various literatures, reports or technical
journal has been referred and it is been concluded that flow
mainly influenced by the yield stress and the viscosity of the
tailing fluid. So, the main focus is to increase viscosity and yield
stress so that on failure of any structure flow can be delayed
and damages could be avoided. Thus, it is inferred the best
solution can be thickening of fluid or making it as non-
Newtonian. Also, small size particles can be added and
concentration of particles can be increase.
Keywords— Rheology, Newtonian, tailings, viscosity
I.INTRODUCTION
With the rapid growth of the global economy, demand for
mineral deposits has escalated, resulting in a significant
increase in yearly mine tailings discharge. The large
proportion of the tailings which have been heaped on the
land results in the formation
of tailings reservoirs, and
as tailing dam safety is bad, it leads to devastation as a result
of a tailings dam collapsing and causing a catastrophic
tragedy beyond estimate. Furthermore, the breach of a
tailings dam has all of the hallmarks of a catastrophic event.
As a result, in past few years, this has become one of the
most hotly debated topics in
catastrophe prevention and
mitigation.
In mine, tailings are one of the most dangerous hazards.
Tailings are the leftovers from the refining of an ore's
profitable fraction.
The link between the strain and the stress in the flowing of
the tailings, which displays them
kinematic and physical features, is referred to as the
rheological characteristics of tailings, and it is a significant
aspect of research to analyse the rheological behaviour of
tailings. The choice of rheological parameters is critical
since they are impacted by specific weight,
solid
concentrations,
slump,
tailing/cement
ratio,
and
chemical/physical characteristics of the mill tailings. In this
context, assessing the homogeneity and the simplicity with
which cemented tailing backfill can be mixed, carried, laid,
and compacted while preventing blockage or malfunction of
pipelines delivering cemented tailing backfill is critical.
Many researches have looked at the rheological behaviour
of cemented tailing backfill in terms of consistency,
flowability, and workability. The Bingham model, is the
model which requires two separate properties to describe the
rheological behaviour of cemented tailing backfill, is widely
accepted. These properties include yield stress that matches
to the shear stress that is required to begin flow of the tailing
backfill (cemented) and the plastic viscosity, which
characterises the paste/slurry resistance
to the deformation
of the tailing backfill (cemented) under the influence of
certain external stresses.
II.NEED OF STUDY
The tailings obtained from the piled dam are generally in a
saturated condition during the functioning of a tailing’s
reservoir. When there is a collapse of the tailings dam, the
dam and the water in the tailing’s reservoir are released
simultaneously. Earthen flow forms, which will have an
influence on the reservoir's riparian zone. As a result,
studying the rheological features of the tailings was critical
in terms of understanding the safety of a tailings dam and the
effects of the sludge discharge under the circumstances of a
collapsed dam.
Because of the large levels of non-ideal (unclean)
suspensions used in the industries like mining, innovative,
inexpensive, and transportable rheological methods and
techniques were required to test and understand the
fundamental flow parameters in both shear and compression
rheological behaviour. Furthermore,
some previous
empirical methodologies have to be adjusted and understood
in a more basic way in order for the data to be employed in
design. The disposal technique has improved dramatically as
a result of greater understanding and use of this rheology.
As there are many parallels between the soil minerals and
the tailings, because they're both pore media made up of the