Speakers
Description
The mechanical characterization of coarse granular materials represents a critical challenge in geotechnical engineering, particularly in urban infrastructure and mining projects. Since 2001, the Centro de Investigación, Desarrollo e Innovación de Estructuras y Materiales (IDIEM) at the University of Chile has developed and implemented large-scale instrumentation, initially motivated by the need to evaluate granular soils for the Santiago Metro extensions. Currently, the equipment allows to performance triaxial tests on specimens with a maximum particle size of 6 inches (152,4 mm), under confining pressures of up to 2000 kPa. This capability is essential for accurately modeling the behavior of rockfill materials and granular mixtures used in the construction and expansion of Run-Of-Mine (ROM) pads and Tailings Storage Facilities (TSF). This article presents the technical and operational challenges related to geotechnical campaigns involving large-scale laboratory tests. In particular, the study adresses the working methodology from covering planning, material transportation, specimen preparation and test execution, emphasizing in the importance of collaboration between academic researchers and industry to obtain representative strength, deformability and permeability parameters at a scale consistent with the Particle Size Distribution (PSD) present in the field, thereby enabling more efficient and sustainable design of large-scale earth and rockfill structures.