847227 — SUMAD

Project description

The aim of the SUMAD project is to determine ways to optimise the use and long-term management of mining spoil dumps. This aim will be met by addressing the following objectives:

1. Identify and characterise spoil dumps from across Europe according to key criteria and recommend suitable candidate sites for use as case studies within the SUMAD project;
2. Perform a geotechnical and environmental assessment of selected sites;
3. Identify potential revitalisation activities, in addition to the deployment of wind turbines and photovoltaic cells, in partnership with key stakeholders and assess the viability (technical and socio-economic) of each;
4. Assess the socio-economic and political restraints and motivations with regard to site revitalisation;
5. Develop methodologies for physical (centrifuge) modelling of spoil material including capability to replicate long-term degradation and creep effects;
6. Design and test foundation systems suitable for candidate sites;
7. Select and refine a constitutive model capable of simulating the complicated mechanical behaviour of spoil material;
8. Validate a numerical modelling tool against the physical modelling and site data and utilise the model to examine the influence of a wide range of site parameters;
9. Examine ground improvement techniques which would allow installation of more sensitive equipment/structures on candidate sites;
10. Develop suitable monitoring techniques to track behaviour of installed infrastructure;
11. Develop a global risk management tool utilising information gleaned from throughout entire project;
12. Introduce geotechnical reliability concepts to address issues related to the heterogeneity and variability present in spoil material, thereby permitting a more accurate geotechnical risk assessment of post-operational works.