Coal fly ash has potential applications in the management of reactive mine tailings. The shear stress versus shear rate curves obtained during viscometer tests are presented to describe the rheological behaviors of tailings slurries mixed with fly ash. The investigation was conducted on specimens prepared with different fly ash additions as well as prepared at variable conditions of temperature, mixing time, and CaCl₂ solution. It was observed that the rheological properties of ash-tailings slurry mixtures are influenced by the hydration of fly ash as well as the particle packing and arrangement. Rheological properties of specimen mixtures were determined from the resulting flow curves using the existing rheological models. The performance of prediction models in calculating the rheological properties of the mixed specimens, as quantified by the root mean square error (RMSE), varied with the mixture constituents, temperature, and time. In general, the Papanastasion, Herschel-Bulkley, Sisko, and Robertson-Stiff models were found to be favorable for use with mixtures of fly ash and tailings slurries, compared to the Bingham, Modified Bingham, Casson, and De Kee models.

The presence of underground voids in regions suitable for sustainable development can adversely affect the stability of the overlying infrastructures. In this paper, the collapse loads of strip rigid footings resting on sand with single and double continuous voids are determined for a frictional Mohr-Coulomb material following the non-associated flow rule. For use by practitioners, design charts are proposed to evaluate the well-known bearing capacity factor N_γ as a function of the dimensionless parameters related to the vertical and horizontal void distances from the footing, void shape, and spacing between the two voids, as well as the soil friction angle. The computational result compares quite favorably with the available theoretical and numerical solutions. The failure mechanism is broadly discussed based on the pattern of soil displacement around the footing and void.

This paper describes the immediate settlement of uniformly loaded rough ring footings with any stiffness on an inhomogeneous finite layer overlying a rough rigid base, which is not yet covered in the literature. Numerical solutions for a wide range of geometric and material combinations are obtained by finite element method. The effects of dimensionless parameters related to footing internal opening, compressibility, footing stiffness, finite layer thickness and soil inhomogeneity are examined. Based on the results, design charts are presented in the form of settlement influence factors that can be used to calculate the immediate settlements at the inner and outer points of ring footings.

This study presents the elastica of non-prismatic cantilever beams with rectangular cross-sections that are subjected to combined loading. The considered beams are nonlinearly elastic and obey Ludwick’s constitutive law. The combined loading system used in this study provides uniform loading, tip point loading, and tip couple loading individually or in combination. This loading system can create a total of seven loading cases that have not been covered in the literature. Ordinary differential equations governing the large deformed shapes of the elastica of the beams are derived and solved numerically. The effects of beam parameters on elastica behavior, including tip responses and strains and stresses loaded onto the cross-sections, were studied. It was observed that the exponential constant of the mechanical properties is very sensitive to elastica behavior. The results also demonstrate that the stresses near the neutral axis are larger with a larger exponential constant.

This paper studies the buckling of standing columns under self-weight and tip load. An emphasis is placed on linearly tapered columns with regular polygons cross-section whose volume is constant. Five end conditions for columns are considered. The differential equation governing the buckling shapes of the column is derived based on the equilibrium equations of the buckled column elements. The governing equation is numerically integrated using the direct integration method, and the eigenvalue is obtained using the determinant search method. The accuracy of the method is verified against the existing solutions for particular cases. The effects of side number, taper ratio, self-weight, and end condition on the buckling load and mode shape are investigated. The contribution of self-weight acting alone to the buckling response is also explored. For a given column volume, especially, the buckling length and its stress distribution of the columns with different geometries and end conditions are estimated.

Mine tailings have often to be stabilized by mixing them with cementing agents. In this study, the pore structure of gold tailings stabilized with Portland cement was evaluated by means of mercury intrusion porosimetry. The investigation was conducted on samples prepared with different fractions of tailings and cement as well as on samples activated with elevated temperature curing and chemical (CaCl₂) addition. It was observed that all mixed samples exhibit a mono-modal pore size distribution, indicating that the cement-stabilized tailings are characterized by a single-porosity structure. The results also showed that the higher fraction of tailings and cement leads to a dense and finer pore structure. The total porosity of mixture samples decreases with increasing curing temperature and CaCl₂ concentration due to the acceleration of hydration reaction.