Ecological Modelling 114 (1999) 275 286

Numerical modelling of biostabilisation for a coal mine overburden dump slope

S.K. Chaulya a, R.S. Singh a, M.K. Chakraborty a, B.B Dhar b,*
b a Scientists, En6ironmental Management Group, Central Mining Research Institute, Dhanbad 826 -001, India Department of Mining Engineering, Institute of Technology, Banaras Hindu Uni6ersity, Varanasi 221 -005, India

Accepted 2 September 1998

Abstract An integrated study on biological stabilisation of the dump slope has indicated that biological reclamation should be considered for long term stability of dump. The grasses have good soil binding capacity and help to control soil erosion and improve dump stability. Native grasses viz. Bamboo (Dendrocalmus strictus) and Kashi (Saccharum spontaneum) are the important constituents of grass species which can stabilise the dump slopes. Field observation of root development of these grass species has indicated that the roots can proliferate upto 0.5 m depth on a coal mine overburden dump after three years of vegetation. From the numerical modelling it has been analysed that roots of these grasses which signicantly enhance the factor of safety of dump slope from 1.2 to 1.4 have a positive role in maintaining long term stability. 1999 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved. Keywords: Revegetation; Modelling; Overburden dump; Slope stability

1. Introduction Opencast mining operations involve huge quantities of overburden removal, dumping and backlling of excavated area. Substantial increase in rate of accumulation of waste materials in recent years has resulted in greater height of dumps to

* Corresponding author. Tel.: +91-326-203010; fax: + 91326-202429; e-mail: root@cscmri.ren.nic.in/director@cscmri. ren.nic.in.

minimise ground cover area. Consequently it has given rise to the danger of dump failures, gully erosion and various associated environmental problems (Campbell, 1992). Revegetation is one of the widely used technique for controlling erosion and stabilisation of dump slope (Akers and Muter, 1974; Singh et al., 1996), and thereby maintaining ecological equilibrium in the area (Jorgensen, 1994). Role of vegetation growth upon dump slope can be described as hydrogeological and mechanical actions (Cherubini and Geiasi, 1997). With respect to the

0304-3800/99/$ - see front matter 1999 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved. PII: S 0 3 0 4 - 3 8 0 0 ( 9 8 ) 0 0 1 5 7 - 4

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Fig. 1. 3D view of the Mudidih dump.

hydrogeological action, roots of vegetation play an important role to enhance dump stability by controlling interception of rain water and evapotranspiration and the resulting pore pressure reduction (Blight, 1987; Hussain, 1995). Whereas mechanical action in turn, reinforced the dump material by roots and enhanced the shear strength of dump material. This action is closely related to root density, depth and strength (Greenway, 1987; Jha, 1989; Suyama, 1992; Hall et al., 1994). However, quantitative evaluation of the biological stabilisation is still unknown and the subject requires further study. Therefore, to understand the stabilisation of dump slope by plant and quantify the improvement in stability, numerical modelling technique which has been applied is a more accurate method and having exibility to assign various material properties for different layers to simulate eld conditions (Naylor, 1982). The present study deals with the dump slope stabilisation through revegetation of a coal mine overburden dump in India for long term protection of the environment.

2. Study site

2.1. Location and description

This site is located at Katras area of Bharat Coking Coal. The dump is situated in Dhanbad district of Bihar state of India with longitude and latitude of 8618%E and 2348%N, respectively. Topography of the area is undulating. The dump was formed by backlling in 1984 with shoveldumper combination. Earlier mining operation was opencasting and now it is working by underground method of mining. Maximum dump height, slope angle and reduced mean sea level (R.L.) at the top are 30 m, 35.5 and 216.04 m, respectively. Fig. 1 shows the 3D view of Mudidih dump on which the study has been conducted.

2.2. Climate
The climate of the area is dry tropical and a year can be divided into the cold winter (DecemberFebruary), a very hot summer (AprilJune)

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Fig. 2. Flow chart of the methodologies adopted for the study.

and a rainy season (July September). Mean minimum daily temperature within the annual cycle ranges from 10-28C and mean daily maximum temperature varies between 26 and 45C. The average annual rainfall is 1376 mm of which 1107 mm occurs between late June and September.

sandy loam to clay loam with subangular blocky structure. Ferromanganese concretions and clay content are found in sub soil. The overburden consists of alluvium loose sand, gravel, shale and sandstone.

2.3. Geology and soil

This site is located in Jharia Coaleld, which is a member of the Damodar Valley coal belt, occurring as an outlier in the Archaean basement area. The bedrock is formed of medium to course grained sandstone clay with ferruginous bands and carbonaceous shales. The soil surface layer is 10 11 cm thick grey brown to very pale brown

3. Methodology The methodologies adopted for the eld and laboratory studies are systematically presented in Fig. 2. Reconnaissance has been carried out in and around the dump site for selection of suitable grass species for biological reclamation of dump slope. Dendrocalmus strictus (Bamboo) and Saccharum spontaneum (Kashi) which are the two

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Fig. 3. Relation between normal and shear stresses during sliding stage.

dominating native grass species have been selected for revegetation of dump slope. Both the grasses have good soil binding capacity by their roots. Grass tillers were collected from the laboratory plant nursery and transplanted on the dump slopes (0.25 0.25 m spacing) after the onset of rain during July, 1993. Grass root biomass was estimated by digging the monoliths (Jha, 1989) of 0.50.5 0.5 m at the time of peak biomass i.e. October, 1996. Physico-mechanical properties of
Table 1 Standard procedures for dump material testing Parameters Grain size distribution Moisture content Bulk density Dry density Specic gravity Void ratio Porosity Liquid limit Plastic limit Permeability Shear strength parameters (c and ) Procedures Sieve analysis Calcium carbide method Measurement of weight and volume Constant weight method Pycnometer Measurement of weight and volume Measurement of weight and volume Liquid limit test apparatus Thread (3 mm) test Falling head test Direct shear and triaxial tests

the dumps have been studied in the month of October, 1996, in the laboratory for index and shear strength properties. To get the in-situ shear strength of the dump materials (with and without grasses) in-situ jack shear tests have been carried out at Mudidih site. Two models have been formulated to simulate the eld conditions (with and without grasses) and analysed by nite difference method (FDM). Numerical modelling has been studied by assigning the dumps geometry, material properties and boundary conditions to the simulated models. It is assumed that the dump formation is gravity loaded and no external load is applied on the model. Nodal displacement (i.e. movement of element due to gravitational loading) of each zone is calculated rst. From the nodal displacements strains are calculated and from strains maximum shear stresses are calculated. Lambe and Whitman (1979) has reported that dump failure occurs due to shear stress. Therefore, utilizing MohrCoulomb constitutive relation, FOS is calculated for each zone. Contours of FOS safety have been drawn by Kriging method for the whole domain.

3.1. Numerical modelling

Numerical modelling for the problem has been simulated by FDM. In this method, the whole domain has been discretised into small two-dimensional zones (elements) which are interconnected with their grid points (nodes). Over each zone the differential equation of equilibrium has been approximated. This has resulted into a system of simultaneous equations which are generally solved by iteration methods. A 2D FDM package FLAC version 2.27 (developed by Itasca Consulting Group, USA) has been utilised for the analysis.

3.2. Constituti6e model

MohrCoulomb pasticity constitutive model has been used to represent the behaviour of dump materials. This model assumes an elastic, perfectly plastic solid in plane strain which conrms to a MohrCoulomb yield condition and non-associated ow rule.

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Fig. 4. In-situ jack shear test.

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Fig. 5. Geometry of the dump used for numerical modelling with boundary conditions.

The yield surface is given by: f = |1 N|2 + 2c(N )

1/2

De2 = De e + De p 2 2 (1)

(4)

and the plastic potential function is given by: g= | N|2 + 2c(N )1/2 (2) Where, Nx = (1+ sin x)/(1 sin x) [x= or ], c is cohesion (positive sign), is friction angle, is dilation angle, |1 is major principal stress, and |2 is minor principal stress. The strain increments are assumed to be composed of elastic and plastic parts: De1 =De e + De p 1 1 (3)

The plastic strain rates are given by the non associated ow rule: e p = u (g/(|1 = u 1 e p = u (g/(| 2 = uN 2 (5) (6)

where u is the multiplier which is determined from the stress state.

3.3. Shear strength properties

Shear strength properties of dump material play a vital role in the dump stability. Determination

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Fig. 6. Area of interest with different dump material properties.

of reliable shear strength values is a critical part of any dump slope design and small variation in it can result in signicant change in the dump slope stability. For most of the evaluation regarding the stability on dump slope, it is necessary to use failure relationship which is a straight line as shown in Fig. 3 and is also known as Mohr Coulomb failure law (Lambe and Whitman, 1979). Shear strength is dened as the maximum resistance to shear stress. This is expressed as: ~= c + | tan
2

Chaulya (1993) has analysed that shear strength of spoil material decreases as the cohesive strength decreases while normal stress and angle of internal friction remain same. This decrease in shear strength reduces the stability of dump. Also, shear strength of spoil material decreases as the angle of internal friction decreases, which in turn reduces stability of the dump.

3.4. Factor of safety

The critical approach for evaluating the stability of slopes is to evaluate the factor of safety (FOS). The FOS is generally dened as the ratio of available shear strength of the dump material

(7)

Where,~ is shear strength, kg/cm , c is cohesive strength, kg/cm2, | is normal stress, kg/cm2 and is the angle of internal friction, .

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Table 2 Index and shear strength properties of dump material Parameters Unit Values

4. Field and laboratory analysis

4.1. Index and shear strength properties of dump material

Dump material samples have been collected and analysed by standard methods. References for the methods of testing of dump material are Tayor (1962), Jumkis (1965), Afanasyev (1976), Lambe (1977), Desai (1986), Hribar et al. (1986) and Punmia (1987).The procedures with respect to various index and shear strength parameters are presented in Table 1.

Grain size distribution (\4.75mm separated) Sand % Silt % Clay % Moisture content % Bulk density g/cc Dry density g/cc Specic gra6ity Void ratio Porosity % Permeability cm/h Shear strength Cohesion kg/cm2 Angle of internal friction

71.00 22.00 7.00 3.95 1.76 1.72 2.44 0.52 34.21 0.042 0.60 31.50

4.2. In-situ jack shear test

A block of known dimension (40 cm height, 80 cm width and 100 cm length) is made and pushed gradually to fail by a xed reaction face (Anand and Rao, 1967; Singh, 1992). The observation is recorded at various stages of failure. The loading face of the block is kept at a distance equal to the total length of the equipment assembly. The sides of the test block are separated from the main soil mass by a narrow cut of 15 to 20 cm width to the full depth and loosely backlled by the excavated soil (Fig. 4). Both reaction face of the pit and the test block must be vertical so that the load applied is horizontal. The shear jack assembly is lowered in the pit and put into the testing position. The load is applied in increments of 0.5 t. It is maintained for a period of 1015 min after which the load is increased to the next stage. It can be noticed that after the application of some load the block of soil starts moving up along a sliding plane exhibiting cracks and heaving of the failed material. The application of load is continued till the test block moves by a distance of approximately 10 cm horizontally. The load at the start of movement

to the shear resistance required to maintain equilibrium. The FOS is then expressed as: FOS = Shear strength available to resist sliding Shear strees mobilized along failure surface (8) FOS may also be dened as that factor by which the shear strength parameters must be reduced in order to bring the potential failure mass into a state of limiting equilibrium. When the material has both c and , it is usual to apply the same factor to c and tan f. Denoting the reduced parameters by an asterisk (*) and the factor by u: c* = c/u tan * = tan /u u = FOS when c* and * are associated with incipient failure.
Table 3 Results of in-situ (jack) shear test Parameters Cohesion (c) Angle of internal friction () Unit kg/cm2

Natural dump material 0.65 32

Dump material with grasses 1.10 33.5

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Fig. 7. Factor of safety for the barren dump.

(Pmax) and at the time when block moves by 10 cm (Pmin) are recorded. After the test, the assembly is taken out from the pit. The true shape of the sliding surface is determined by removing the soil which shears off along the sliding plane. After the removal of failed soil, the depth of the failure surface is measured at three locations along the width of the block and at every 10 cm intervals along the length of the block. The average value of h which is measured at three locations is used to determine the shear strength parameters. The shear strength parameters, c and , have been determined as discussed below.

A cross section as sown in Fig. 4 has been drawn for all the pits tested by making use of the average depth of the sliding surface. It has been further subdivided into suitable number of slices. The weight of each slice (w) and length (l) along the sliding plane have been determined. Further, the weight of the whole sliding mass (W) has been determined from following equations: w= khmxb W= %wn
i n

(9) (10)

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Fig. 8. Factor of safety for the dump with grasses on slope.

where, hm is midheight of the slice (m), k is unit weight (t/m3), x= width of the slice (m), b = the width of the test block (i.e. 0.8m) and n = the number of slices. Using the value of Pmax, Pmin, lengths and weight of slices, the values c and have been calculated from the following equations: c =(Pmax Pmin)/(bx) tan ={(mA)B (cX)}/{(mB) + A} Where, m =Pmax/(bW) (11) (12)

A= W cos qn B= W sin qn X= %xn

i n

4.3. Formulation of models

Observation in the eld has indicated that the average depth of grass roots is 0.5 m after 3 years of vegetation. MohrCoulomb plasticity constitutive model has been used to represent the behavior of dump materials as discussed earlier. To

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study the effect of grass plantation on dump slopes following two models have been formulated and run separately: 1. The whole domain has been assigned with same properties as measured in the respective eld to simulate the natural dump material i.e. without grasses (Fig. 5). 2. A modied layer with c and f values as measured in the eld of 0.5m thick along the dump slope has been assigned to represent dump with grasses (Fig. 6). Slope angle and height of the dump are observed to be 35 and 30 m, respectively. Base length of 70 m is selected considering the geometry of the dump and inuence of stress. Whole domain has been discretised into two different size of two-dimensional elements. Near the slope (area of interest) ne elements of 0.5 0.5 m size and for rest area 0.5 2 m size elements have been selected. The boundary conditions applied include roller boundary (i.e. displacement in vertical direction is allowed and horizontal direction is xed) along the rear side of the dump and xed boundary (i.e. no displacement by horizontal and vertical directions) along the base which are shown in Fig. 5.

5. Results and discussion The summary of the laboratory test results of physico-mechanical properties of dump materials is given in Table 2. Results of in-situ shear (jack) tests have also been presented in Table 3. Field study on growth performance of grasses have indicated that mean grass height, root depth and belowground root biomass are 224 cm (9 72), 45 cm ( 94) and 467 g/m2 ( 976), respectively after 3 years of grass growth on the dump slope. The value of belowground biomass is within the range of 455 g/m2 ( 943) which is reported from the natural succession of plant species on twelve years old age dump slope of a dry tropical coal mine spoil in India. Results of numerical modelling have indicated that maximum displacement of elements occurs near the crest of the dump (top portion of slope). Therefore, any dump deformation monitoring

programme should be planed near the crest of the dump slopes as dump failure generally occurs after signicant movement over a long time (British Columbia Mine Waste Rock Pile Research Committee, 1991). Thus for large dump with high dump slope and height continuous monitoring of dump deformation is essential and wireline extensometer with continuos recording facility may be used for the same. Wireline extensometer is a simplest type of equipment having easily readable and adjustable features (Chaulya, 1998). From the stress analysis of dump slope it has been observed that grass root has reduced the stress concentrations near the surface of dump slope in comparison to barren slope. It has been observed that FOS has enhanced from 1.2 to 1.4 due to plantation of grasses on dump slope and thereby enhancement of shear strength of dump material by the root matrix and path of critical failure surface has also changed. Contours of MohrCoulomb FOS is illustrated in Figs. 7 and 8 for the dump without and with grasses, respectively. Depth of critical failure surface (i.e. the surface along which dump failure occurs) has increased from the dump slope surface in case of slope with grasses than the barren slope, which is also an important factor for maintaining long term stability of coal mine overburden dump.

6. Conclusions It may be concluded from the analysis that grass roots play a very crucial role in the stabilisation of coal mine overburden dump slopes. It creates mechanical reinforcement of dump material by the proliferation of roots. Shear strength of dump material is also enhanced by the root matrix which in turn increases the long term stability of dump slopes. On most of the occasions mine dump failure occurs after signicant deformation with prior warning signals. Results of numerical modelling analysis of slope stability have indicated that the maximum deformation occurs near the crest region. Therefore, any deformation monitoring programme should be conducted near the crest of dumps. In case of steep and high faces of

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S.K. Chaulya et al. / Ecological Modelling 114 (1999) 275286 Chaulya, S.K., 1993. Estimation of Dump Stability of an Opencast Mine Dump. M.Tech Thesis. Department of Mining Engineering, Institute Technology, Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi, India. Chaulya, S.K., 1998. Environmental Management of Overburden Dump Stability An Integrated Study. Ph.D. Thesis, Department of Mining Engineering, Institute Technology. Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi, India. Campbell, D.B., 1992. Resloping of waste rock dumps. Int. Mine Waste Manag. News 2 (2), 7 10. Desai, M., 1986. Experimental Geotechnical Engineering. Nasnal Printers, Surat, India. Greenway, D.R., 1987. Vegetation and slope stability. In: Anderson, M.G., Richards, K.S. (Eds.), Slope Stability. Wiley, New York. Hall, B.E., Giles, E.L., Rauch, H.P., 1994. Experiences with the use of trees in slope stabilization. XIII ICSMFE, New Delhi, pp. 1231 1235. Hribar, J., Dougherty, M., Ventura, J., Yavorskyu, P., 1986. Large scale direct shear tests on surface mine spoil. International Symposium on Geotechnical Stability in Surface Mine, A.A. Balkema, Calgary, Rotterbam, pp. 295 303. Hussain, A., 1995. Fill compaction-erosion study in reclaimed areas. Indian Mining Eng. J. 34 (6), 19 21. Jha, A.K., 1989. A note on the root development in dry tropical naturally revegetated coal mine spoil. Vegetatio 85, 67 70. Jorgensen, S.E., 1994. Models as instruments for combination of ecological theory and environmental practice. Ecol. Model. 75/76, 5 20. Jumkis, R.A., 1965. Soil Mechanics. Afliated East-West Press, New Delhi, India. Lambe, W.T., 1977. Soil Testing for Engineers. Wiley, New Delhi. Lambe, T.W., Whitman, R.V., 1979. Soil Mechanics. Wiley, New York. Naylor, D.J., 1982. Finite elements and slope stability. In: Martin, J.B. (Ed.), Numerical Methods in Geomechanics. D. Keidel, Wasington DC, pp. 229 244. Punmia, B.C., 1987. Soil Mechanics and Foundations. Standard Book House, Delhi, India. Singh, R.S., Chaulya, S.K., Tewary, B.K., Dhar, B.B., 1996. Restoration of a Coal-mine Overburden Dump A Case Study. Coal International, March: 88 83. Singh, V.K., 1992. Inuence of Geotechnical Factors on Openpit Slope Stability. Ph.D. Thesis. Department of Mining Engineering, Institute of Technology, Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi, India. Suyama, M., 1992. Assessment of biotechnical slope stability effect for urban forest in Japan. Proceedings of the Sixth International. Symposium. on Landslides, A.A. Balkema, Christchurch, pp. 831 836. Tayor, W.D., 1962. Fundamentals of Soil Mechanics. Asia Publishing House, Bombay, India.

dumps, continuous monitoring of deformation is recommended by wire line extensometer tted with continuous recording arrangement so that dump failure and risk hazards can be minimised.

Acknowledgements Authors are thankful to T.N. Singh, Director, Central Mining Research Institute (CMRI), Dhanbad, for giving permission to publish this paper. Thanks are also due to B.K. Tewary, M. Prasad and V.K. Singh, Scientists, CMRI, Dhanbad, for their immense support during the eld study and laboratory analysis. Grateful acknowledgment is also due to the Ministry of Coal, Government of India, New Delhi, for sponsoring this research work under the project entitled Environmental Management of Overburden Dumps. Finally, the help and cooperation extended by the management of Mudidih mine during the eld study is sincerely acknowledged.

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