Experimental and numerical investigation of the tailings flow characteristics due to dam failure: A Chinese case study

Failure of tailings dams causes a sudden release of substantial tailings into the downstream terrain, resulting in enormous environmental, human health and economic problems. Therefore, a good understanding of the tailings flow characteristics upon possible dam failure is important for the design, construction and operation of mine tailings ponds. In this study, a large-scale physical model test was first carried out to examine the influence of tailings flow on the downstream terrain of Meizijia valley. It was found that 14 % of total tailings were released to the downstream terrain upon the dam failure. Additionally, about 64 % of the released tailings were deposited at the river channels nearly the Shangdi and Shizhou villages and some riverain buildings and farmlands were inundated. Based on the 3D filed terrain conditions, a Rapid Mass Movement Simulation (RAMMS) was introduced to simulate the tailings flow after the failure of Meizijia tailings dam. The simulated tailings deposition depths at different sections agreed well with the measured ones, indicating the good performance of the proposed simulation method. According to the experiment and simulation results, a reference tailings deposition depth was proposed for guiding the design and implementation of mitigation measures at Shangdi and Shizhou villages.