Validation of failure surfaces of a heap leach pad in the Peruvian Andes using LEM and SSR method

DOI

10.2991/978-94-6463-900-1_30How to use a DOI?

Keywords

Heap leach pad; Three-dimensional slope stability analysis; limit equilibrium method; failure surfaces; spline; shear strength reduction method

Abstract

When developing three-dimensional slope stability analyses using the limit equilibrium method (3D-LEM) there is always the question of whether the shapes of the studied failure surfaces can occur in reality; certain methods use spherical, ellipsoidal and spline shapes, the latter having greater flexibility and adopting almost any shape, providing lower safety factors than spherical or ellipsoidal ones. A reasonable criterion to validate the failure surfaces studied with the LEM is by comparing them with those obtained by the shear strength reduction method (SSRM), which does not require preliminary hypotheses to define the mechanisms of the failure surfaces, such as shape and location. This study addresses the 3D-LEM stability analysis of a heap leach pad located in the Peruvian Andes, which has an inherent complexity in its stacking geometry (concave and convex zones seen in plan) and in its stratigraphic distribution of the foundation (sectorized soft clayey soils); a search for failure surfaces through foundation is carried out considering that the materials behave under drained conditions and following the Mohr-Coulomb failure criterion; the shapes of the failure analyzed include spherical, ellipsoidal and spline failure, through Slide3 software applying the Particle Swarm Search algorithm. The validation of the failure surfaces is executed with the SSRM implemented in RS3 program, obtaining that the spline surfaces are the best fit and the ones that provide the closest factor of safety.

Copyright

© 2025 The Author(s)

Open Access

Open Access This chapter is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits any noncommercial use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license and indicate if changes were made.

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TY  - CONF
AU  - Jimmy Tapia
AU  - Laura Rojas
AU  - Jean Minaya
AU  - Alex Huarcaya
PY  - 2025
DA  - 2025/12/07
TI  - Validation of failure surfaces of a heap leach pad in the Peruvian Andes using LEM and SSR method
BT  - Proceedings of the Rocscience International Conference 2025 (RIC 2025)
PB  - Atlantis Press
SP  - 309
EP  - 317
SN  - 2589-4943
UR  - https://doi.org/10.2991/978-94-6463-900-1_30
DO  - 10.2991/978-94-6463-900-1_30
ID  - Tapia2025
ER  -