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Faculty of Engineering, Built Environment and Information Technology
School of Engineering
Department of Civil and Biosystems Engineering
Selected Highlights from Research Findings
Seismic Cone Penetration Test. The South African mining industry annually produces millions of tons of mine waist in the form of finely ground rock flour in large disposal facilities known as tailings dams. Engineers are concerned with evaluating the risk posed by tailings dams and in particular the possibility of flow failure occurring. In the event of a flow failure the tailings material may liquefy and flow large distances resulting in damage to property and potentially the loss of life. The likelihood of a flow type failure depends on the density of the material in the dam, but to date the measurement of the density has been impossible below the water table, as this material cannot be sampled without considerable disturbance.
A seismic cone has been built at the Department and used to measure the velocities of seismic waves in tailings material and this information was used to determine the density of the subsurface materials. The new technique has been successfully implemented at a number of tailings dams and constitutes a significant advance as it creates the ability to judge the risk of flow type failures. In future this should allow the design and construction of safer mine disposal facilities.
Contact person: Prof G Heymann.
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