ABSTRACT
Uncertainty exists as to the role of placement conditions of filtered tailings on water retention behaviour. In this study, we measured 12 drying and 12 wetting soil water characteristic curves on two filtered tailings with various initial gravimetric water contents and dry densities. Filtered tailings at ≥90% standard Proctor maximum dry density maintained higher degrees of saturation under suctions between 15 and 600 kPa, when compared to loosely placed (80% compaction) filtered tailings. Similarly, filtered tailings compacted wet of optimum maintained higher saturations under suctions between 15 and 600 kPa compared with filtered tailings compacted at optimum water content.
Acknowledgments
The authors also acknowledge the mines that provided filtered tailings samples for this study.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
Supplementary material
Supplemental data for this article can be accessed online at https://doi.org/10.1080/17480930.2023.2260592