Farzad Daliri - Ph.D., P.Eng., M.ASCE, Geotechnical R&D Engineer, Thurber Engineering Ltd., Calgary, Alberta, Canada
Mohammad Shahsavari - Ph.D. Candidate in Geotechnical Engineering, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada

The Soil-Water Characteristic Curve (SWCC) is a governing factor that should be estimated or measured to obtain geotechnical engineering behavior, such as unsaturated hydraulic conductivity and compressibility, of sub-aerially deposited unsaturated tailings. Since tailings are not natural soils, there are complexities in measuring SWCC of some mine or oil sands tailings compared to the SWCC of natural soils due to high volume change or tailings treatment. Even though there have been some research to estimate and measure SWCC of tailings, the necessity of the SWCC to tailings treatment industry is relatively dis-regarded. This paper reviews empirical and experimental methods to estimate or measure SWCC of tailings and provides published SWCC of different tailings. At the end, the pa-per discusses the application of the SWCC to tailings treatment technologies such as de-watering behavior of deposited tailing, thin lift deposition and designing capillary barrier covers for tailings ponds.

Tailings, Geotechnical Engineering, Unsaturated Soils, Soil Water Characteristics Curve