Deformation behaviors of oil sands mine waste soils: Compaction effects

摘要

Overburden excavation for oil sands mining results in a large volume of soil for disposal. The soil undergoes little compaction thus it has a large potential for volume change after deposition when subjected to loading, or when inundated by re-establishment of the ground water system. The large volume change can be substantial decreased through compaction during placement. The deformation behavior is studied using compression and wetting tests. It was found that the applied compaction pressure has an important influence on the deformation behavior. The compaction effect could be neglected when the future overburden stress is greater than compaction pressure.