Numerical safety assessment of the dams of the "Zelazny Most" tailings pond
Abstract
The "Zelazny Most" facility is an above-ground tailings storage facility that is constantly being expanded due to its function. It was put into operation in 1977 and for more than 35 years it has been the only place where the tailings from the copper ore mining operations of KGHM Polska Miedz S.A. have been stored. The maximum height of the dams exceeds 80 m.
The presentation will introduce numerical analysis methods and their implementation to assess the safety of the dams of this facility. The following issues will be discussed in detail: numerical modelling of the earth structure during its construction process, calibration of the model and identification of the mechanical properties of the subsoil using genetic algorithms. Attention will also be paid to the numerical design of technologies for the reinforcement of such structures, i.e. relief wells and loading berms. The presentation will be illustrated by 3D calculation results of the eastern dam of "Zelazny Most".
Biography
Dariusz Lydzba is Professor of Soil Mechanics and Composite Materials. He is the Head of the Department of Geotechnics and Hydrotechnics and is currently also the Vice Rector for Research and Innovation at Wroclaw University of Technology.
He has decades of experience in constitutive modelling of composite materials and soils, and numerical modelling of coupled fields in geotechnical problems. He currently leads a research team working on inverse problems in homogenisation theory and numerical analysis of large-scale geotechnical problems. Current research areas include: laboratory identification of microstructural features of natural composite materials, numerical reconstruction of the microstructure of a composite material based on its macroscopic response function, numerical evaluation of the safety of earth embankments of the “Żelazny Most” tailings pond.
He has rich collaborations with stakeholders interested in the laboratory identification of microstructural properties of composite materials and the safety of geo- and hydrotechnical structures.