Influence of different fibers on compressive toughness and damage of early age cemented tailings backfill

Abstract

For improving the utilization rate of tailings and the safety of cemented tailings backfill (CTB) as earthwork materials, the influence of three types of fibers (e.g., glass, polyacrylonitrile and mixture fibers of both) on compressive toughness and damage of early age CTB was studied. An equation for quantitative analysis of compressive toughness of fiber-reinforced CTB was established. An uniaxial compression test was carried out to monitor the damage acoustic emission (AE) activities of CTB during the loading process. Then, the microstructure of CTB after uniaxial compression test was observed by scanning electron microscope (SEM). The results indicated that mixed fiber has the most comprehensive reinforcement effect on compressive toughness and peak load of CTB. Three fibers inhibited the crack development rate of CTB, glass fiber mainly absorbed axial strain energy of CTB before peak load, while polyacrylonitrile fiber mainly absorbed fracture energy generated during the crack development of CTB after peak load, mixed fiber combined their advantages. The AE activities of three fiber-reinforced CTB samples are much stronger than those of non-reinforced CTB samples in the loading process, and these are no "quiet period" of AE activities. Three fibers all improved the durability of CTB in the damage process, and the damage process of mixed fiber-reinforced CTB is the most stable and showed an approximate linear growth trend. Polyacrylonitrile fiber has a strong resistance to crack after the peak load of CTB because of its ellipsoid part on the surface. As a result, this study can provide a theoretical reference for construction units to use fiber-reinforced CTB for engineering applications and filling work.

Keywords: Acoustic emission activities; Compressive toughness; Damage; Fiber-reinforced cemented tailings backfill; Microstructure; Mining engineering.