Estimation of Seismic Slope Stability for Ash Tailing Dams in India.

Jaykumar Shukla1, A.M. ASCE; Deepankar Choudhury2

1

Senior Geotechnical Engineer, L&T Sargent & Lundy Ltd., Vadodara, India. Jaykumar.Shukla@Lntsnl.com

Professor, Dept. of Civil Engineering, IIT -Bombay, Powai, Mumbai 400076, India. E-mail: dc@civil.iitb.ac.in

In India, more than 85 power plants are in operation, of which majority are coal based producing
approximately 150 million tons of coal ash yearly. The percentage of utilization of these
generated ash are still insufficient and for most of the power plants ash is deposited in the
vicinity of power plant in ash pond. Moreover, for new power plants, the land acquisition is a
major issue and with limited area, rapid vertical expansions of Ash-dykes, even above 20 m high,
are inevitable. With provision of HDPE liner at the pond bottom, the compaction of deposited
ash is unlikely in absence of sufficient drainage provisions. The upstream raising of these ash
dykes on loosely deposited pond ash poses very high risk during seismic events. Both static and
seismic analyses of a typical section of tailings earthen dam are presented in this paper. In situ
measurements have been obtained for two representative sites and seismic slope stability
analyses were performed. The dynamic analysis is performed using FLAC 2D and SLOPE/W
and QUAKE/W. Various input earthquake ground motions have been used for the time history
analysis of typical ash pond configuration. It is observed that the maximum displacement of crest
increase significantly under seismic loading and pseudo-static stability are not sufficient to
provide information on probable displacements. Also the seismic slope stability analysis shows a
significant reduction in factor of safety of such tailings dam compared static loading condition.
Significant amplification of earthquake ground motions were observed and results are discussed
in detail at the end of the paper.