The landslide of mine is of great harm and wide influence, which can easily cause huge economic losses and endanger the life safety of workers. Therefore, landslide failure mechanism and more efficient landslide treatment methods have been the focus of landslide research. Laoyinzui landslide with a volume of 250,000 m³ occurred along the gently inclined weak interlayer at 6:00 (UTC + 8) on 5 January 2019 in Huangshan Limestone Mine, Emei City, Sichuan Province, China. The deformation history and failure mechanism of the landslide were analyzed based on the field investigation and geological conditions of landslide area. The treatment method of using excavators to remove all sliding body within the arm length by excavating the small-bench in the bedrock was proposed. The slope stability after treatment was analyzed based on the monitoring data. The results showed that the landslide was triggered by rainfall and earthquake after long-term creep deformation under the action of various factors. Weak interlayer was the potential sliding surface of landslide. The tensile cracks at the back edge of the landslide and the joint fissures and karst caves of the upper limestone provided convenient conditions for rainwater infiltration. Mining activities, including excavation and blasting, resulted in deterioration of mechanical properties of rock mass. Rainfall was the main trigger for the landslide. Water accumulated in weak interlayer, leading to increase of pore water pressure and decrease of anti-sliding force. Earthquake was the trigger for the landslide, which resulted in the reduction of rock mass structural strength. The Laoyingzui landslide consisted of two stages. First, a traction landslide of + 825 m–915 m occurred, and then a push landslide of + 725 m–+ 825 m occurred under the compression of the upper rock mass. The slope displacement was small and the deformation tended to be stable. The treatment method was safe and efficient. This paper can provide reference for the failure mechanism research and treatment of similar landslides.

Tailings ponds are the indispensable facilities in the mine production and operation. Once the dam is destabilized and damaged, it will pose a serious threat on the life and property of the downstream population and could also potentially cause an environmental disaster. With an engineering background, this paper dynamically and numerically simulates the evolution process of tailings flow from dam failure and the influence scope of any resulting disaster in context. The evolution characteristics of leaked tailings flow are analyzed at various downstream riverbed slopes and debris blocking dam settings. In addition, parameters such as flow rate, impact force and deposition range of leaked tailings flow at downstream arrival are studied, as well as their correlations. The results indicate that the flat terrains upstream and downstream of passage zone show a relatively larger area of inundation by tailings flow. Both the maximum and final downstream inundated ranges increase with the elevating slope of downstream riverbed, and the leaked tailings are deposited mainly in the nearby villages in front of the dam and the flat terrains of the downstream passage zone. Additionally, rational establishment of debris blocking dams on the downstream side is effective in diminishing the damage of tailings flow to the downstream section. This study can also provide an important basis for the quantitative evaluation of post-disaster influence scope for tailings pond as well as for the design of dam body.

A rock creep constitutive model is the core content of rock rheological mechanics theory and is of great significance for studying the long‐term stability of engineering. Most of the creep models constructed in previous studies have complex types and many parameters. Based on fractional calculus theory, this paper explores the creep curve characteristics of the creep elements with the fractional order change, constructs a nonlinear viscoelastic‐plastic creep model of rock based on fractional calculus, and deduces the creep constitutive equation. By using a user‐defined function fitting tool of the Origin software and the Levenberg–Marquardt optimization algorithm, the creep test data are fitted and compared. The fitting curve is in good agreement with the experimental data, which shows the rationality and applicability of the proposed nonlinear viscoelastic‐plastic creep model. Through sensitivity analysis of the fractional order β₂ and viscoelastic coefficient ξ₂, the influence of these creep parameters on rock creep is clarified. The research results show that the nonlinear viscoelastic‐plastic creep model of rock based on fractional calculus constructed in this paper can well describe the creep characteristics of rock, and this model has certain theoretical significance and engineering application value for long‐term engineering stability research.

The deterioration of rock mechanical properties under chemical-freezing-thawing-loading will seriously threaten the stability and safety of engineering rock mass, so the study of its constitutive model has very important theoretical and engineering application significance. In view of the deficiency that the existing statistical damage constitutive model cannot describe the nonlinear characteristics of the compaction stage and the post-peak shape, the compaction index is introduced to measure the stress-strain nonlinear characteristics caused by the iso-compression of the pores in the rock, and the post-peak correction coefficient is introduced to optimize the post-peak shape of rock loading. Assuming that the strength and failure of rock microunits obey the Weibull distribution, on the basis of using the Drucker-Prager strength criterion to measure the strength of rock microunits, a statistical damage model for rock considering the compaction stage and post-peak shape under chemical-freezing-thawing-loading is established. Finally, it is compared with the test curve. The results show that the calculation curve of the established chemical-freezing-thawing-loading rock statistical damage model has the same trend as the rock uniaxial compression test curve. Furthermore, it can better describe the rock stress-strain law with different chemical solutions and different freeze-thaw cycles, which fully reflects the rationality and accuracy of the constructed constitutive model. The research results can provide a theoretical basis for the calculation of deformation and failure of rocks under chemical-freezing-thawing-loading.

As one of the important influencing factors of tailings dam stability, seepage field distribution within the dam is often affected by the tailings mineral characteristics. While the alkalinity or acidity of reservoir water and long term immersion will partially change the physical and mechanical properties of tailings. This study carried out permeability tests of tailings under the action of chemical solution. On this basis, a three dimensional (3D) model was constructed to analyze the velocity field and effective saturation within the tailings dam. Moreover, the dam section along the valley bottom was selected as the basic section in calculation, so as to analyze the changes in infiltration point and buried depth of the phreatic line under different permeability coefficient ratios. The results suggest that, under the action of acid-alkaline solution, the permeability coefficients of tailings reduced, and the stronger solution acidity-alkalinity resulted in the longer action time and more obvious change; under the action of chemical solution, the fluid flow velocity in the dam gradually decreased, and the drat beach length in the reservoir gradually shortened. Besides, when the upper layer permeability coefficients of tailings was lower than that of the lower layer, the dam phreatic line had a shallow buried depth and a high infiltration point.

In order to better understand the shear creep behavior of weak interlayers (carbonaceous shale) under the coupling effect of the rainfall dry–wet cycle and blasting vibration, as well as quantitatively characterize the coupled damage of the rainfall dry–wet cycle and blasting vibration, a series of shear creep tests were carried out. The results show that the combined damage of the rainfall dry–wet cycle and blasting vibration greatly intensifies the creep effect of carbonaceous shale, leading to an increase in deceleration creep time, an increase in steady-state creep rate, and a decrease in long-term strength. The coupling damage of the rainfall dry–wet cycle and blasting vibration in carbonaceous shale was quantitatively characterized. Based on the fractional-order theory, a fractional-order creep-damage constitutive model (DNFVP) was established by introducing the Abel dashpot to describe the coupled damage of the rainfall wet–dry cycle and blasting vibration and the nonlinear creep acceleration characteristics. The three-dimensional creep equation of the model was derived. The effectiveness of the DNFVP model was verified through the inversion of model parameters and fitting of experimental data, providing a basis for in-depth research on the long-term stability of high slopes in mines with weak interlayers.