The behaviour of tailings under cyclic loading has an impact on the stability and deformation of tailings dams and a good understanding of the cyclic behaviour of the tailings under earthquakes is important for tailings engineers and tailings operators for the design and safe operation of tailings dams._x000D_
This paper presents an investigation into the cyclic behaviour of tailings using both laboratory cyclic direct simple shear (DSS) testing and numerical modelling._x000D_
The laboratory testing involved cyclic DSS tests on gold tailings and zinc-copper tailings under different loadings and loading frequencies._x000D_
The gold tailings specimen tested at a higher loading frequency and a higher cyclic stress ratio experienced spontaneous liquefaction during cyclic shearing and the zinc-copper tailings specimen tested at a lower loading frequency and a similar cyclic stress ratio exhibited ductile behaviour and liquefied due to cyclic mobility._x000D_
The liquefaction behaviour of the tailings was modelled using an advanced constitutive model (UBCSAND), which was developed specifically to model soil liquefaction and strain softening under cyclic loading._x000D_
The constitutive soil model presents the nonlinear soil behaviour under dynamic loading using a hyperbolic stress-strain relation._x000D_
Dynamic analyses were carried out using a finite difference program FLAC._x000D_
The cyclic stress-induced excess pore water pressures measured in the laboratory were modelled using numerical simulations of the laboratory tests under different loading conditions._x000D_
The results of the non-linear dynamic analyses demonstrated the capability of numerical modelling of cyclic shearing induced excess pore water pressure and the onset of the spontaneous liquefaction._x000D_
The laboratory investigation and numerical modelling technique provided the key properties and parameters for the dynamic analyses to assess the stability and deformation of tailings dams under design earthquake events._x000D_
More importantly, the laboratory tests and numerical modelling provided some insights into liquefaction behaviour of the tailings during earthquakes._x000D_
CITATION:Li, A, Laxman, M and Jinto, H, 2018. Liquefaction behaviour of tailings under cyclic simple shear testing, in Proceedings Mine Waste and Tailings Stewardship Conference 2018, pp 250-262 (The Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy: Melbourne).