China Safety Science Journal ›› 2025, Vol. 35 ›› Issue (5): 135-144.doi: 10.16265/j.cnki.issn1003-3033.2025.05.0918

• Safety engineering technology • Previous Articles     Next Articles

Sedimentation law of fine tailings and characteristics of slurry flow by flume model test

CHEN Qinglin1,2(), BAO Lilin1,2, WANG Xiaojun1,2,**(), DAI Zeyu1,2, ZHANG Chao3, WANG Guangjin1,2   

  1. 1 Jiangxi Province Key Laboratory of Safe and Efficient Mining of Rare Metal Resources, Ganzhou Jiangxi 341000, China
    2 School of Resources & Environment Engineering, Jiangxi University of Science and Technology, Ganzhou Jiangxi 341000, China
    3 State Key Laboratory of Geomechanics and Geotechnical Engineering, Institute of Rock and Soil Mechanics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Wuhan Hubei 430071, China
  • Received:2024-12-05 Revised:2025-02-15 Online:2025-05-28 Published:2025-11-28
  • Contact: WANG Xiaojun

Abstract:

To investigate the occurrence characteristics of the tailings deposit and slurry flow behavior during the damming process of tailings impoundments, the flume test model was used to carry out the fine-grained tailings accumulation damming test under single pipe slurry discharge conditions. The variation characteristics of beach slope, tailings particle size distribution, water level height and pore water pressure during the accumulation process of fine-grained tailings were studied. The tailings slurry flow and trajectory characteristics were analyzed, and the mechanism of tailings refinement along the deposition course was discussed. The results show that deposition slope decreased with the increase of the downstream distance. The particle size of tailings gradually becomes finer with increase of downstream distance, and the particle size is staggered with the increase of depth. The height of water level of tailings dam increases with the increase of height of dam, exhibiting a steep front slope and a gentle back slope overall. The pore water pressure rises during the discharge stage of tailings slurry and dissipates during the intermittent stage when tailings slurry stops discharging. The tailings slurry flows in a fan-shaped divergent pattern at the beginning of flume, in an irregular stream-like pattern in the middle section, and transitions from laminar flow to irregular rotational flow at the end. The slurry flow rate on dry beach surface fluctuates greatly, and slurry movement tends to be stable after reaching the tailings water surface. There is a significant difference in slurry movement characteristics before and after the interface between dry beach and tailings water.

Key words: fine-grained tailings, tailings pulp flow, deposition beach slope, flume, tailings dam, pore water pressure

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