Numerical simulation on self-weight consolidation of uncemented tailings slurry in mine stopes

Uncemented backfill in mine stopes can reduce cement usage to control mining costs, but the fine tailings slurry without cement is difficult to be dehydrated and consolidated and is usually in flow state for a long time, which affects the safety of mining with backfill.In this paper, a numerical simulating method is presented to evaluate the consolidation of uncemented tailings slurry based on the FLAC^3D software.The proposed numerical method is validated against the analytical solution of pore water pressure(PWP) by Gibson's model.It shows that the simulated results of PWP are sensitive to the mesh size which should be limited to values within 1/100 of filling height in the direction of self-weight consolidation.The proposed method is then illustrated to simulate the consolidation of a paste backfill in a gold mine, and the comparison with the field monitored pore water pressure and vertical total stress are made to verify the effectiveness of the numerical method to simulate the consolidation process in a real backfilling stope.It can provide a reliable reference for the research on self-weight consolidation of tailings slurry in mine stopes.