Effect of Climatic Variability on the Factor of Safety of a Tailings Storage Facility
摘要
Recent studies in unsaturated soil mechanics have led to the interest of integrating the knowledge to slope stability analysis, but its application for Tailing Storage Facilities (TSFs) remains limited. This study explores how climatic variability affects the factor of safety (FoS) of a TSF with partially saturated zones using suction-depth profiles developed from tailings fractal properties and one-dimensional steady-state model under varying climatic conditions. The one-dimensional model employs unique power-law relationships that reflect the fractal nature of tailings materials to link suction, hydraulic conductivity, and volumetric water, and the developed suction-depth profiles were used to determine equivalent shear strength parameters for slope stability analysis for each climatic condition. The FoS obtained from the slope stability analyses were also compared for three cases: a base case, a full suction-depth profiles, and a simplified model. The results show that higher evapotranspiration rates result in higher apparent strength gain, enhancing shear strength and FoS. The two partially saturated models are found to align closely at lower rates and slightly diverge at higher rates. Overall, the findings indicate that climatic variabilities in a partially saturated TSF have measurable impacts on slope stability, and simplified suction profiles can offer practical insights for preliminary evaluations.