Short courses

Short courses will be given on the side-lines of the Annual Meeting. It is possible to register for these courses in addition to participating in the event, registration is mandatory.

The additional fee to cover costs are:

Half day course – 2 000 kr excl. vat
Full day course – 3 000 kr excl. vat

Short course 3 and short course 4 are fully booked

– Saturday 10 June (Full day)

The finite element method is a common tool for assessment and design of concrete dams today. Despite this, there are few general and practical recommendations on best practices in numerical modelling. Therefore, there is a need and interest for practical guidelines focused on numerical analyses of concrete dams among dam engineers and researchers.

Two Swedish guidelines have recently been developed within the topic. ICOLD committee A is currently also working on finalizing a bulletin on non-linear analysis of concrete dams. In addition to this, the results from past ICOLD benchmark workshops will constitute the basis for this short course in numerical modelling of concrete dams.

Course objective
Provide general and practical recommendations and guidelines on how and when finite element analyses may be used to assess the structural behavior or safety of concrete dams. This includes modelling aspects, material behavior, degradation and damage, modelling strategies, etc. It also includes recommendations for review of numerical models and results.

The course is intended for dam engineers, structural engineers and researchers that perform and review numerical analyses of concrete dams.

Content / Program
The course will cover all the main aspects of numerical modelling, such as definition of:
– geometrical model
– element discretization
– material behavior
– boundary conditions and constraints
– static, environmental (temperature and moisture) and dynamic (seismic) loads

Other topics included in the short course are:
– FEM theory
– solver solution techniques
– verification and validation processes
– safety formats

In addition to lectures, the course will also include a practical modelling exercise.

Lecturers
The lecturers on the course are: Dr. Jerzy Salamon (USBR, USA), Dr. Tobias Gasch (COMSOL Multiphysics, Sweden), Dr. Manouchehr Hassanzadeh (Sweco, Sweden) and Dr. Morteza Sohrabi Gilani (Sweco, Sweden). The practical modelling exercise is organized by Dr. Denise Ferreira (DIANA FEA, Netherlands). This short course is arranged by SwedCOLD. The main organizers of the course are Dr. Manouchehr Hassanzadeh (Sweco, Sweden) and Dr. Daniel Rydle (Vattenfall, Sweden).

View Schedule

– Saturday 10 June (Full day)

Much focus is directed towards the phenomenon of “static liquefaction” (undrained instability) when assessing stability of tailings dams because of the devastating tailings dam failures that the mining industry has experienced.

Why does static liquefaction happen? Are we doing something wrong when analyzing the stability of tailings storage facilities? How does other disciplines confronted with similar material behavior deal with undrained instabilities?

Course objective
The objective is to provide demonstrations of the static liquefaction failure mechanisms (and triggering processes) as it relates to tailings, and the tools used to assess the potential for this behavior

Theoretical discussions will be alternated with examples from various tailings failure case histories and behavior of element tests on loose tailings samples to highlight the relevance of the concepts and the meaning of the results. The use and interpretation of the cone penetration test (CPT), the key tool in situ to assessing the strength and liquefaction susceptibility of tailings, will also be outlined.

Mining and tailings consultants, operators of tailings storage facilities, as well as regulators will find this workshop of interest.

Content / Program (full day)
List of topics that the course will cover
• Relevant soil mechanics review
• Static liquefaction
• Case histories
• Laboratory testing
• Cone penetration test
• Post-liquefaction strength
• Stability analysis Soil mechanics review

Lecturers
The short course is arranged by SwedCOLD. Main lecturers are Prof. Andy Fourie and Dr. David Reid both from University of Western Australia.

– Sunday 11 June (Full day)

Risk Assessment is a well-documented process that has been used for decades in many industries including water supply, irrigation and hydropower dams. Although risk assessments for tailings dams are mandatory in many jurisdictions and the Global Industry Standard on Tailings Management (GISTM) requires risks to be reduced to as low as reasonably practicable (ALARP), there is currently no specific guideline available for risk assessment for tailings dams.

The new ICOLD Bulletin 194 partly addresses the issue by providing an overview of the typical risk assessment process. However, for further details the reader is referred to applicable ICOLD and national guidelines, which were primarily developed for water storage dams.

The members of the ICOLD Committee L – Tailings Dams and Waste Lagoons – are currently considering whether and in what form ICOLD can assist tailings practitioners in developing risk assessments of tailings dams and this short course forms part of this process.

Course objective
The course objective is to present the current state of practice of Risk Assessment for tailings dams, building upon the principles outlined in Bulletin 194, with the view to improve the safety of tailings operations across the world.

Group activities will provide an opportunity for the attendees to engage in the key risk assessment activities including hazard and failure mode identification, risk analysis, evaluation of the risk magnitude and consideration of reasonably practicable measures to address risks.

The intended audience of this course includes dam owners, regulators, authorities, designers and consultants, contractors and NGOs.

Content / Program (full day)
The course will cover the following aspects of risk assessment:

  • Importance of understanding risk assessment objectives
  • Key steps in the risk assessment process
  • Clarification of risk tolerability concepts
  • Identification of risk control measures and their verification
  • Evaluation of what is reasonably practicable
  • Integration of risk assessment into tailings management systems

Lecturers
The short course is arranged by SwedCOLD and ICOLD Committee L – Tailings Dams and Waste Lagoons and it will be presented by the committee members Paul Ridlen and Jiri Herza together with industry experts in risk assessment including:

  • Dom Galic (USBR, USA)
  • Dr. David Bowles (Independent Consultant, USA)
  • Dr. Des Hartford (BC Hydro and a member of ICOLD’s Dam Safety Committee, Canada)
  • Malcolm Barker (Risk specialist, GHD, Australia)
  • Joel Mårtensson (legal counsel, Mannheimer Swartlings, Sweden)
  • Ryan Singh (HATS Consulting, Australia).

A program of the short course is available here.

– Wednesday 14 June (AM)

Tailings Dam Safety has become a world-wide focus after devastating tailings dam failures that the mining industry has experienced, Mount Polly, Samarco and Brumadinho to mention a few. This has resulted in important initiatives worldwide, including involvement of major investors with publishing of the Global Industry Standard on Tailings Management (GISTM) presenting a framework for safe tailings facility management. This document provides high-level Principles and is supported by various industry guidelines on governance; however, these do not give the technical detail required for practitioners working in the tailings industry to comply with the requirements of the Standard. This is where ICOLD have stepped up with the new Bulletin 194 on Tailings Dam Safety (English preprint available on the ICOLD webpage). The new Bulletin provides a comprehensive coverage of all aspects of tailings dam safety to provide explanation of the principles behind the GISTM but also provides the technical detail and guidance to assist practitioners to develop safe, stable tailings management structures.

Course objective
The short course will be presented by members of Committee L – Tailings Dams and Waste Lagoons – who has been involved in the writing of the Bulletin. Presentations will cover “Why do we do it?” a look at lessons learned from past failures, the development of the GISTM, how Bulletin 194 addresses and supports the GISTM then delves into some detail of the Bulletin topics of Consequence Classification, hydrotechnical design & water management, dam breach analysis and tailings dam closure.

This course would be of value to anyone working with Tailings Dams, i.e. dam owners, regulators, authorities, designers and consultants, contractors and NGO:s.

Content / Program (half a day)
The course will cover aspects such as;
• Introduction – “Why do we do it?” – an overview of historic tailings dam failures and lessons learned
• A brief overview of the Bulletin and its relationship to GISTM and TSM
• Deep dive into critical aspects of dam safety covered in the Bulletin:
– Assessing the Consequence Classification of a Tailings Dam
– Hydrotechnical & Water Management for Tailings Dams
– Tailings Dam Safety Management

Lecturers
The short course is arranged by SwedCOLD and ICOLD Committee L – Tailings Dams and Waste Lagoons. Main lecturers are Annika Bjelkevik, Tailings Consultants Scandinavia (TCS) Sweden, David Brett, GHD Australia, Andy Small, Klohn Crippen Berger (KCB) Canada and Paul Ridlen, Knight Piésold USA, Claudia Kamke, UNECE

A program of the short course is available here.
A final schedule of the short course is available here.

Photo below © Landafors-Ljusnan

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