Numerical Analysis of Mining Waste Slopes Stability

Mining waste in Poland may come from mining hard coal, lignite, metal ores and other raw materials. They can be deposited in landfills or built into road infrastructure (road and railway embankments) and hydro-technical infrastructure (earth dams, embankments of sedimentation tanks). The main problem with the safe waste storage on heaps or the design of engineering objects built from them is the high variability of the values of the strength parameters of waste resulting from their heterogeneity. The article presents two examples of parametric analyses when calculating the stability of slopes made of mining tailings: heap slope in which a pressure pipeline at risk of landslide is located and sedimentation tank embankment whose stability was lost due to weathering and seepage. The shear strength reduction method in the FEM program was used for the calculations. A simple approach to the variability of strength parameters considers the impact of weather conditions, the passage of time, and seepage on the gradual reduction of the strength of the slope material. As a result of the calculations, changing values of the safety factor Fs were obtained, which depend on the extent of the zones of weakened material in the slope and seepage.