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Seepage stability analysis of geogrid reinforced tailings dam

27 Mar.,2025

Increasing the dry beach length improved the stability of the tailings dam, and under normal working conditions, the safety of the tailings dam was much higher than under the minimum dry beach condition. These results served as a reference for the design of the dam and the new tailings reservoir, laying a foundation for the sustainable development and environmental protection of the tailings pond.

 

Abstract

To investigate the influence of a geogrid-reinforced tailings dam on the seepage stability of the dam body, this paper was based on the field test of a reinforced tailings accumulation dam. The study utilized the finite element strength reduction method to simulate the stability of the main dam of the Fengshuigou tailings reservoir under different seepage conditions using ABAQUS software. Additionally, the paper discussed the impact of conventional heightening, dry beach length, and geogrid reinforcement on the position and safety factor of the saturation line of the dam body. The results showed that when the dam body was raised, the saturation line rose by 2.8–5.3 m, resulting in a decrease in the safety factor. The geogrid effectively reduced the height of the saturation line in the tailings dam. In comparison to the unreinforced condition (dam heightening), the saturation line of the tailings dam decreased by 0.9–2.8 m under the local reinforcement condition and by 3.2–12.5 m under the overall reinforcement condition. The geogrid significantly improved the stability of the tailings dam. Furthermore, under the local reinforcement condition, the safety factor of the dam increased by 3.8–5.5%, and under the overall reinforcement condition, it increased by 35.9–42.9%, when compared to the unreinforced condition. Increasing the dry beach length improved the stability of the tailings dam, and under normal working conditions, the safety of the tailings dam was much higher than under the minimum dry beach condition. These results served as a reference for the design of the dam and the new tailings reservoir, laying a foundation for the sustainable development and environmental protection of the tailings pond.

Introduction

The stability of the tailings dam was closely related to the safe operation of the whole tailings reservoir. According to a review of relevant information1, the failure of a tailings dam seriously threatened the safety, life, and property of downstream inhabitants, as well as polluted and damaged the ecological environment. For example, in 2019, the Córrego do Feijão tailings dam I in Brumadinho, Minas Gerais, broke and released a large amount of tailings, resulting in the deaths of 660 people and polluting downstream rivers2. In 1985, a dam failure in a tailings pond in Stava, northern Italy, resulted in 268 deaths and significant economic losses3. With governments’ increasing attention to the safety of tailings ponds, the overall safety level has been significantly improved. However, the problem of heavy rainfall climate has gradually become the main factor causing the tailings dam to break4. Because the permeability of the tailings dam was greatly affected by the seepage field, the location of the saturation line in the seepage field was closely related to the length of the dry beach and the rainfall intensity5.

To make an accurate evaluation of the stability of the tailings dam, similar physical model tests and numerical simulations were usually used to evaluate. For the physical model, selecting reasonably similar materials was particularly important for the test results. However, choosing similar materials often involves many subject knowledge and was more complicated. In contrast, numerical simulation has gradually become an important method to evaluate the stability of tailings dams. At present, many scholars have used the finite element method to establish two-dimensional or three-dimensional models to carry out research6,7. Lu et al.8 proposed that proper simplification and generalization of complex terrain in three-dimensional (3D) numerical calculation had little impact on the results and could meet the accuracy requirements. Based on the stochastic limit equilibrium method, Mafi et al.9 analyzed the dam’s stability with three different slopes. Dastpak et al.10 analyzed the stability of geosynthetic reinforced slopes based on non-circular certainty and randomness. Aroni Hesari et al.11 used the horizontal slice method to study the seismic internal stability of geosynthetic reinforced soil slopes. Fatehi et al.12 used the pseudo-static method to examine the stability of reinforced slopes under seismic load. Doğan and Güllü13 proposed a 3D voxel model generation method for finite element structural analysis. Wang et al.14 analyzed the stability of tailings dams under dry–wet cycles and proposed an effective calculation method for the saturation line of tailings dams under dry–wet cycles. Wang15 analyzed the seepage condition of the dam body under the current elevation and the final design elevation of the tailings pond through theoretical analysis and numerical calculation. Zhang et al.16 analyzed the influence of different dry beach and upstream-side slope ratios on the seepage stability of the tailings dam. Naeini et al.17 used SIGMA/W software to analyze the stress-pore pressure coupling. It can be seen from the above research results that the limit equilibrium method was mainly used to solve the safety factor of the tailings dam. When the limit equilibrium method was used to analyze the influence of pore water pressure on the stability of the tailings dam, the pore water pressure was treated as zero in the case of an unsaturated area, ignoring its influence. At the same time, many factors affected the stability of the tailings dam, but most were related to saturation line, dry beach length, and pore pressure. The research on seepage stability of tailings dams reinforced by geogrid was relatively weak.

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