Consolidation behavior of hydraulic fills

The backfilling of mines provide safe working conditions and increases the strength of the\ud nearby ground. The hydraulic backfill is one of the most popular backfills used in mines. These\ud consist of classified mine tailing with not more than 10% by weight of size less than 10 I-lm, with\ud approximately 70% by weight of solid content. The anecdotal evidence suggests that the\ud consolidation of the deslimed hydraulic fill is instantaneous (Thomas et al. 1979, Clark 1988).\ud All current computer programs (Isaac 8: Carter 1983, Traves 8: Isaac 1991, Rankine 2005 ) used\ud for simulating the hydraulic fills to study the drainage behavior assumed that the hydraulic fill\ud settles instantaneously and are based on uncoupled analysis. The objective of this paper is to\ud study the consolidation behavior of hydraulic fills experimentally and to check the validity of\ud this assumption.\ud The consolidation behavior of mine tailings is different from the sand and clays. Laboratory\ud tests have been carried out in James Cook University laboratory to measure the time\ud dependent settlement in hydraulic fills, due to consolidation and creep. It has been found that\ud the time dependent settlement and immediate settlement contributes equally to the\ud settlement. The results of tests are presented and discussed in this paper