Laboratory Studies of Segregation in Prograding Deltas of TSRU tailings

Abstract

The largest issue common in the tailings reclamation process used by the oil sands industry today is the slow settling rate of fine particles relative to larger particles. We hypothesize that if the fine and coarse particles were able to somehow settle together that there would be less segregation and therefore the ponds would be more stable. Before this idea can be explored, a greater understanding of the concepts behind the sorting mechanisms is required as well as an examination of the conditions that reduce the amount of sorting. For our experiments, these ideas would be explored by varying the dynamics to allow for more mixing to occur. It is clear that unmixed deposits are undesirable for ponds due to the fact that the fine particles hinder the reclamation process by settling at slower rates and not naturally dewatering. We hypothesize that if some of the fines were to intermix with the coarse particles present on the beaches of the ponds, a stable beach would still be produced. We are hopeful that the methods we investigate in this thesis will assist the industry in identifying the general dynamics present in their deposits and subsequently adjust these dynamics to provide a more desirable outcome.