A three-dimensional model study of lateral pressure manifestation in gorge dump overburden

Today the development of upland quarries with the formation of multi-tiered dumps of overburden rock mass in complex conditions of mountainous terrain and limited land resources still remains a problem. The conducted analysis has shown that the practice of designing of multi-tiered dumps in gorges lacks detailed consideration of the issues determining the stress distribution in the dump body depending on the dihedral angle formed by the slopes of the side faces of the gorge. The point is that the process of overburden dumping is accompanied with the transmission of stress forces to the central axial plane of the dump body formed in the gorge from the side of the gorge inclined surfaces. At the same time, the inclined component of stresses is due to the mass of overburden rocks dumped onto the inclined side surfaces of the gorge. Being directed at an angle to the shear forces acting in the dump, these lateral stresses play a positive role in the acceleration of rock mass consolidation in the clamped environment during the overburden dump formation. The decrease in dump shear forces leads to the increase in dump stability. It also allows to determine the rational volumes of overburden to be laid as well as the main parameters of a multi-tiered dump. It should be noted that there are significant difficulties in identifying and objective assessing the nature of occurrence and distribution of stress forces in the dump being constructed in the gorge using graphic-analytical methods. In the course of the presented study, the author made an attempt to identify and register stress forces in the body of a multi-tiered overburden dump formed in the gorge using physical modeling methods. For this purpose, a three-dimensional model test bench of a multi-tiered dump has been developed. This test bench allows to solve a three-dimensional problem using the method of physical modeling and, identify the stress variation patterns in the central axial plane of the dump model depending on the inclination angles of the side surfaces of the gorge.