Gold Thesis 2011: Structural Engg (STE)

"Gold Struct": Van, Erica & John

This year, Gold Thesis Awards will be given to outstanding thesis for each specialization in the present civil engineering curriculum. Last July 1, 2011, the awardees were announced and the group of Van Wesley Lim, Erica Uy and John Vincent Uy was selected as the awardee for the Structural Engineering Division. The group's adviser is Ms. Mary Ann Adajar. The abstract of their thesis is given below:

Shear Strength Determination under Isotropic Condition of Some Mine Tailings in the Philippines

by

Van Wesley Lim, Erica Uy and John Vincent Uy

This study aims to apply the cam clay model to predict the behavior and at the same time determine the shear strength parameters of some selected mine tailings in the Philippines namely Negros Oriental copper mine tailings, tailings from aggregate quarry in Cavite and Davao gold mine tailings. Tons of mine tailings are contained in dams which serve no purpose and could pose as threat if ever dam failures would occur and it is the interest of this paper to determine which among these three mine tailings possess strength parameters which may serve as construction materials. Three types of tiaxial tests, unconsolidated undrained test, consolidated undrained test and consolidated drained test, were conducted on the mine tailings in the determination of the shear strength parameters. The results of these tests classified tailings from aggregate quarry in Cavite as the mine tailing which has the greatest strength followed by the Davao gold mine tailings and lastly, the mine tailing which exhibited the least strength is the Negros Oriental copper mine tailings. Among the three mine tailings, the tailings from aggregate quarry in Cavite is considered to be the most suitable tailing which may be used as construction materials.