Sensitivity analysis of mechanical and geometrical properties of fly ash stabilized overburden dumps using mathematical simulations

摘要: Increasing stripping ratios in surface mines have led to the removal and movement of huge volumes of overburden that is generally stored in form of internal or external dump within the mine boundaries. For safe storage in limited areas, the overburden dumps are stabilized using several popular methods. One of the recent economic and environmentally safe techniques is the stabilization of dumps using fly ash composite material. This study analyzes the sensitivity of the overall stability of the dump slope on its geometrical and material properties, when stabilized using fly ash composite. Four different geometric parameters and six material properties were varied in simulated dump models to find the sensitivity of the factor of safety (FOS) using limit equilibrium (LEM) and finite element methods (FEM). The sensitivity analysis was also carried out for minimum thickness of fly ash composite layers required for …