Course: Tailings Dams Stability Analysis: Recent Advances in Numerical Analysis & 3D Modelling

Course Details

• Date: November 6th - 8th, 2023
• Venue: Hotel Boulevard Plaza, Sala Strauss, Av. Getúlio Vargas, 1640 Belo Horizonte, MG 30112-024
• Schedule: 9 am to 5 pm
• Instructors: This course will be in English, instructed by Dr. Reginald Hammah, Director of Rocscience Africa.
• Registration Fees:
  • Early Bird Price - $1195 USD (until September 30th, 2023)
  • Regular Price - $1395 USD

What’s included:

• Temporary software licenses
• PDF of course materials
• PDH Certificate
• Lunch & Snacks

Please note:

• Registrants will be responsible for their own accommodation
  
• Participants must bring their own laptops (and mice)
• Participant numbers are limited

Course Outline

Through a mix of presentations and 'hands-on' tutorials based on practical TSF embankment examples, the course will cover the following topics:

The Craft of Tailings Engineering

• The changing nature – and permanence – of TSFs
• The need to predict TSF performance/stability by computation and modelling

Mechanical Behaviour of Soils and Tailings

• Fundamental characteristics of soil behaviours - shearing responses of granular material (soils and tailings)
  • Volume changes under shearing – dilative and contractive responses to loading.
  • Change in stiffness with stress and strain levels
  • Density/void ratio/state
  • Dilatancy (dilation angle)
  • Drained (effective stress) vs undrained (total stress) analyses
  • Brittle vs ductile behaviour
  • Consolidation
  • Post-peak and residual behaviour
  • Critical state/liquefaction
  • Parameters for characterizing the mechanical behaviour of soils and tailings.

• Constitutive material relationships, including critical state soil mechanics laws.

Overview of TSF Stability Analysis and Modelling with Software

• Failure mechanisms of TSFs
  • Slope instability
  • Foundation failure
  • Liquefaction
• Measures of stability
  • Factor of safety
  • Probability of failure
  • Deformations
  • Seepage

• Factors affecting embankment stability – review of inputs required for TSF stability analysis.
• Limit equilibrium methods (LEMs)
• Numerical methods

Fundamentals of Limit Equilibrium Methods (LEMs) and 3D Stability Analysis

• Methods of slices (Bishop, GLE/Morgenstern, Janbu, Spencer, etc.)
• Failure surface shapes
• Assumptions of LEM
• Choosing appropriate methods of slices
• When should we model in 3D?
• Developing 3D TSF models
• Interpreting 3D LEM results

Numerical Methods

• Stress-deformation analysis
• How stress-deformation analysis (deformations, strains, stress states, pore water pressures, etc.) can be used to assess dam safety and performance.
• Overview /fundamentals of numerical methods – finite element method (FEM), finite difference method (FDM), boundary element method (BEM), discrete element method (DEM)
• Shear strength reduction (SSR) method for calculating slope factors of safety.
• Development of relevant stress-deformation analysis (numerical) models that capture real-world TSF performance.
  • Understanding different drainage conditions – drained, undrained, and coupled (consolidation) conditions
  • Modelling pore pressures in tailings dams and foundations
  • Evaluating stability (factors of safety) and deformations under various loadings (including liquefaction potential under static loadings)
  • Where to put model boundaries
  • Boundary conditions to be applied.
  • Meshing of models

Verification of Models and Model Assumptions

• Capturing of diverse geotechnical and hydrogeological conditions, material behaviours (and associated strength parameters) under various loadings and multiple construction stages
• Judgement of analysis outputs for reasonableness (results that reflect actual performance and reproduce the essential aspects of TSF behaviours

Seepage and Groundwater Analyses

• Pore pressure changes in TSF embankments, stored tailings, and foundation
• Modelling pore pressures in tailings dams and foundations
  • Steady-state seepage analysis
  • Transient analysis
  • Coupled analysis
  • Excess pore pressure

For any additional queries, please reach out to our Latin American team.

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Course Instructor:

Dr. Reginald Hammah, Ph.D., P.Eng. Director of Rocscience Africa holds a Ph.D. in Civil Engineering from the University of Toronto and brings over 20 years of experience in rock mechanics and geotechnical engineering. He uniquely blends practical problem-solving experience with software tools and theoretical understanding of geotechnical behavior. He is well known for breaking down complex problems into simpler, more familiar, and solvable components.