<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">

<p>Reliable assessment of earthen dams’ stability and tailing storage facilities widely used in the mining industry is challenging, particularly under seismic load conditions. In this paper, we propose to take into account the effect of the dominant frequency of seismic load on the stability assessment of tailing/earthen dams. The calculations are performed by finite element modelling (FEM) with the Mohr–Coulomb failure criteria. To separate the frequency content from other dynamic parameters describing the seismic wave, synthetic waveforms with identical amplitude and attenuation characteristics, but differing spectral characteristics have been used. The analysis has been performed for three different slope angles and two scenarios of seismic wave propagation. Consequently, the changes of total displacement and shear stresses depending on the frequencies have been determined and clearly show that lower frequencies cause higher stress levels and displacement. Finally, the response surface methodology has been applied to determine how different parameters affect the slope stability under dynamic load conditions. Overall, this study is a first step to improve the existing methods to assess slope stability when considering seismic load.</p>
</abstract>

Reliable assessment of earthen dams’ stability and tailing storage facilities widely used in the mining industry is challenging, particularly under seismic load conditions. In this paper, we propose to take into account the effect of the dominant frequency of seismic load on the stability assessment of tailing/earthen dams. The calculations are performed by finite element modelling (FEM) with the Mohr–Coulomb failure criteria. To separate the frequency content from other dynamic parameters describing the seismic wave, synthetic waveforms with identical amplitude and attenuation characteristics, but differing spectral characteristics have been used. The analysis has been performed for three different slope angles and two scenarios of seismic wave propagation. Consequently, the changes of total displacement and shear stresses depending on the frequencies have been determined and clearly show that lower frequencies cause higher stress levels and displacement. Finally, the response surface methodology has been applied to determine how different parameters affect the slope stability under dynamic load conditions. Overall, this study is a first step to improve the existing methods to assess slope stability when considering seismic load.

Importance of seismic wave frequency in FEM-based dynamic stress and displacement calculations of the earth slope

Faculty of Geology, Geophysics and Environmental Protection, Department of Geophysics

Technical University Bergakademie Freiberg

Institute of Geophysics and Geoinformatics

Bundesanstalt für Materialforschung und prüfung

Studia Geotechnica et Mechanica

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Reliable assessment of earthen dams’ stability and tailing storage facilities widely used in the mining industry is challenging, particularly under seismic...

Importance of seismic wave frequency in FEM-based dynamic stress and displacement calculations of the earth slope

Article Category: Original Study

Publié en ligne: 09 févr. 2022

Pages: 82 - 96

Reçu: 22 juin 2021

Accepté: 16 déc. 2021

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/sgem-2022-0002

Mots clés
Slope stability, Numerical analysis, Seismic load, Frequency analysis

© 2022 Krzysztof Fuławka et al., published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Importance of seismic wave frequency in FEM-based dynamic stress and displacement calculations of the earth slope

Article Category: Original Study

Publié en ligne: 09 févr. 2022

Pages: 82 - 96

Reçu: 22 juin 2021

Accepté: 16 déc. 2021

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/sgem-2022-0002

Mots clésSlope stability, Numerical analysis, Seismic load, Frequency analysis

© 2022 Krzysztof Fuławka et al., published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Mots clés
Slope stability, Numerical analysis, Seismic load, Frequency analysis