Master crack types and typical acoustic emission characteristics during rock failure

Acoustic emission(AE)signals contain substantial information about the internal fracture characteristics of rocks and are useful for revealing the laws governing the release of energy stored therein.Reported here is the evolution of rock failure with diferent master crack types as investigated using Brazilian splitting tests(BSTs),direct shear tests(DSTs),and uniaxial compression tests(UCTs).The AE parameters and typical modes of each fracture type were obtained,and the energy release characteristics of each fracture mechanism were discussed.From the observed changes in the AE parameters,the rock fracture process exhibits characteristics of staged intensifcation.The scale and energy level of crack activity in the BSTs were signifcantly lower than those in the DSTs and UCTs.The proportion of tensile cracks in the BSTs was 65%–75%,while the proportions of shear cracks in the DSTs and UCTs were 75%–85%and 70%–75%,respectively.During the rock loading process under diferent conditions,failure was accompanied by an increased number of shear cracks.The amplitude,duration,and rise time of the AE signal from rock failure were larger when the failure was dominated by shear cracks rather than tensile ones,and most of the medium-and high-energy signals had medium to low frequencies.After calculating the proposed energy amplitude ratio,the energy release of shear cracks was found to exceed that of tensile cracks at the same fracture scale.

Microscopic damage evolution of anisotropic rocks under indirect tensile conditions: Insights from acoustic emission and digital image correlation techniques

The anisotropy induced by rock bedding structures is usually manifested in the mechanical behaviors and failure modes of rocks.Brazilian tests are conducted for seven groups of shale specimens featuring different bedding angles. Acoustic emission (AE) and digital image correlation (DIC) technologies are used to monitor the in-situ failure of the specimens. Furthermore, the crack morphology of damaged samples is observed through scanning electron microscopy (SEM). Results reveal the structural dependence on the tensile mechanical behavior of shales. The shale disk exhibits compression in the early stage of the experiment with varying locations and durations. The location of the compression area moves downward and gradually disappears when the bedding angle increases. The macroscopic failure is well characterized by AE event location results, and the dominant frequency distribution is related to the bedding angle. The b-value is found to be stress-dependent.The crack turning angle between layers and the number of cracks crossing the bedding both increase with the bedding angle, indicating competition between crack propagations. SEM results revealed that the failure modes of the samples can be classified into three types:tensile failure along beddings with shear failure of the matrix, ladder shear failure along beddings with tensile failure of the matrix, and shear failure along multiple beddings with tensile failure of the matrix.

Theoretical analysis of characteristics of acoustic emission in rock failure based on statistical damage mechanics

Based on statistical damage mechanics,the constitutive model of a rock underthree-dimensional stress was established by the law that the statistical strength of rockmicro-element obeys Weibull distribution.The acoustic emission (AE) evolution model ofrock failure was put forward according to the view that rock damage and AE were consistent.Moreover,in the failure process of rock under three-dimensional stress,the change inrelationship between stress condition parameter and the characteristic parameters of AE,such as the event number and its change rate,were studied.Also,the rock AE characteristicunder uniaxial compression was analyzed in theory and verified with examples.Theresults indicate that the cumulative event number and change rate of AE in rock failure aredetermined by stress state parameter F.Along with the gradual increase of F,first the cumulativeevent number increases gradually,then rapidly,and then slowly after the stresspeak.The form of change rate of an event by increasing F is consistent with the distributionform of rock micro-element strength.The model explained the phenomenon that a relativelyquiet period of AE appears before rock rupture that is observed by many researchersin experiments.Verification examples indicate that the AE evolution model is consistentwith the test results,so the model is reasonable and correct.

CONFINING PRESSURE EFFECT ON ACOUSTIC EMISSIONS IN ROCK FAILURE

Based on the phenomenon that acoustic emissions (AE) generated by rock mass increase suddenly because of underground excavation, time sequence of AE rate in rock failure has been discussed by using statistical damage theory. It has been demonstrated that how the influence of confining pressure on the deformation behavior and AE characteristics in rocks can be inferred from a simple mechanics model. The results show that loading confining pressure sharply brings out increasing of AE. On the other hand, few AE emits when confining pressure is loaded sharply, and AE occurs again when axial pressure keeps on increasing. These results have been well simulated with computer and show close correspondence with directly measured curves in experiments.

Evaluation and classification of rock heterogeneity based on acoustic emission detection

For deep rock mechanics and subsurface engineering,accurately characterizing and evaluating rock heterogeneity as well as analyzing the correlation between the heterogeneity and physical and mechanical properties of rocks are critical.This study investigated the characteristics of acoustic emission signals produced in the process of strong and weak phase damage to rocks.The failure mechanisms of the strong and weak phases were analyzed by performing Brazilian splitting tests on different metagabbros and granites.The strong-weak phase ratio of the rocks and the uniformity of their spatial distribution were characterized.Test results show that as the feldspar develops,the strong-phase ratio of the metagabbro increases.However,the spatial distribution of feldspar minerals in the metagabbro becomes less uniform.The mineral spatial distribution uniformity in the altered granite is good;however,its strong-phase ratio is low.Furthermore,the strong-phase ratio of the typical granite is high;however,its mineral spatial distribution uniformity is poor.Moreover,uniaxial and triaxial test results show that the peak strength and elastic modulus of the rocks are related to the strong-weak phase ratio and mineral spatial distribution uniformity of the rocks.This study provides a new analytical method for the mechanical evaluation of deep rocks.

Uniaxial experimental study of the acoustic emission and deformation behavior of composite rock based on 3D digital image correlation(DIC)

In this paper, uniaxial compression tests were carried out on a series of composite rock specimens with different dip angles, which were made from two types of rock-like material with different strength. The acoustic emission technique was used to monitor the acoustic signal characteristics of composite rock specimens during the entire loading process. At the same time, an optical non-contact 3 D digital image correlation technique was used to study the evolution of axial strain field and the maximal strain field before and after the peak strength at different stress levels during the loading process. The effect of bedding plane inclination on the deformation and strength during uniaxial loading was analyzed. The methods of solving the elastic constants of hard and weak rock were described. The damage evolution process, deformation and failure mechanism, and failure mode during uniaxial loading were fully determined. The experimental results show that the θ = 0?–45?specimens had obvious plastic deformation during loading, and the brittleness of the θ = 60?–90?specimens gradually increased during the loading process. When the anisotropic angle θincreased from 0?to 90?, the peak strength, peak strain,and apparent elastic modulus all decreased initially and then increased. The failure mode of the composite rock specimen during uniaxial loading can be divided into three categories:tensile fracture across the discontinuities(θ = 0?–30?), slid-ing failure along the discontinuities(θ = 45?–75?), and tensile-split along the discontinuities(θ = 90?). The axial strain of the weak and hard rock layers in the composite rock specimen during the loading process was significantly different from that of the θ = 0?–45?specimens and was almost the same as that of the θ = 60?–90?specimens. As for the strain localization highlighted in the maximum principal strain field, the θ = 0?–30?specimens appeared in the rock matrix approximately parallel to the loading direction,while in the θ = 45?–90?specimens it appeared at the hard and weak rock layer interface.

Effects of confining pressure on acoustic emission and failure characteristics of sandstone

In this study,uniaxial and triaxial compression acoustic emission(AE)tests were implemented to investigate the AE effect and failure characteristics of sandstone under different confining pressures(σ3).The evolution of AE parameters in the rock failure process and fracture fractal dimension characteristics after failure were analyzed.The results revealed that the activity of the AE signal is strongly related toσ3.The evolution of the Ib value can be divided into the I-fluctuation,II-stability,and III-decrease stages.In the first stage,the Ib value of the AE was relatively high,and the AE energy was low.Then,the Ib value tended to be stable;however,the fluctuation amplitude decreased,and the AE energy rapidly increased.In the stage of decrease,the AE energy sharply increased before the load approached the peak value,and the Ib value significantly decreased and dropped to the lowest point before the peak value.Asσ3 increased,the rock’s failure mode changed from tensile failure to shear failure and became more coordinated.As the confining pressure increased,the shape dimension decreased,and the order degree of rock failure increased.The confining pressure exerted a certain control effect on the rock failure.

Spatio-temporal characteristics of acoustic emission during the deformation of rock samples with compressional and extensional en-echelon faults

The spatio-temporal characteristics of acoustic emission (AE) during the deformation of rock samples with compressional and extensional en-echelon faults have been studied. The results show that the pre-existing structure can significantly influence the patterns of AE spatial distribution. With increasing of differential stress, AE events firstly cluster around the two ends of pre-existing faults inside the jog and then along the line joining the two ends. The biggish AE events often occur around one end repeatedly. The image of AE clusters indicates the direction and the area of the fracture propagation. The direction of the macroscopic fracture in extensional and compressional jogs is perpendicular and parallel to the direction of axial stress, respectively. The weakening process before the fracturing of jog area is remarkable, and one of the typical precursors for the instability is that the cumulative frequency of AE events increases exponentially. After the fracturing of the jog the frequency and releasing strain energy of AE events decrease gradually. During the friction period, there is no precursory increasing of AE activity before the big stick-slip events. The change of b value in jog shows a typical change of decreasing tendentiously returning quickly before the instability. The decrease of b value occurs in the process of stress increasing and sometime goes down to the weakening stage, and the quick increase b values appears in a short time just before the instability. The comparative analysis shows that the difference in b value due to the different structures is larger than b value variation caused by increase of the differential stress. For the same sample, the temporal sequence of AE is strongly affected by the mechanical state, and the high loading velocity corresponds to the high release rate of strain energy and low b value. Due to its lower failure strength, the broken area is sensitive to small changes in differential stress. Therefore, it offers a potential explanation for the phenomena of precursory window or sensitive point and separation of seismic source and precursors.

Theoretical and experimental analysis on the mechanism of the Kaiser effect of acoustic emission in brittle rocks

The Kaiser effect is formally described as the absence of detectable acoustic emission （AE） events until the load imposed on the material exceeds the previous applied level and is usually used to estimate geostress. By focusing on the heterogeneity of rock material, the mechanism of the Kaiser effect under cyclic loading is analyzed based on statistic damage mechanics. Two groups of granite specimens have been cyclically loaded with two different loading paths to verify the theoretical results. The heterogeneity of rock is the real reason that causes irrecoverable damage on the Kaiser effect of acoustic emission in cyclic loading. The Kaiser effect reflects the damaged state in rocks rather than the previous stress imposed on it. Applications for using the Kaiser effect to estimate geostress were discussed here. It is shown that the commonly used uniaxial loading method for estimating geostress is not in accor- dance with the theoretical and experimental results. The analysis is of importance to use the Kaiser effect correctly for estimating geostress or in other fields. 2008 University of Science and Technology Beijing. All rights reserved.

Experimental study on failure evolution mechanism of clastic rock considering cementation and intermediate principal stress

The study of clastic rock failure evolution under true triaxial stress is an important research topic;however,it is rarely studied systematically due to the limitation of monitoring technology.In this study,true triaxial compression tests were conducted on clastic rock specimens to investigate the effect of cementation and intermediate principal stress(s2)on the failure mechanism.The complete stressestrain curves were obtained,while the acoustic emission(AE)was monitored to indirectly evaluate the evo-lution of tensile and shear cracks,and crack evolution under true triaxial compression was imaged in real time by a high-speed camera.The results showed that the deformation and failure characteristics of clastic rock were closely related to the cementation type and intermediate principal stress.On the basis of the distribution characteristics of the ratio of rise time to amplitude(RA)and the average frequency(AF)of AE signals,tensile cracks of the contact cementation specimen propagated preferentially.Meanwhile,the enhancement of specimen cementation promoted the evolution of shear cracks,and the increase inσ_(2)promoted the evolution of tensile cracks.Moreover,the mesoscale cracking mechanism of clastic rock caused by cementation andσ_(2)under true triaxial compression was analyzed.The failure patterns of clastic rock under true triaxial compression were divided into three modes:structure-induced,structure-stress-induced and stress-induced failures.This study confirms the feasibility of high-speed camera technology in true triaxial testing,and has important implications for elucidating the disaster mechanism of deep tunnels in weak rocks.

Discrete element modeling of acoustic emission in rock fracture

The acoustic emission （AE） features in rock fracture are simulated numerically with discrete element model （DEM）. The specimen is constructed by using spherical particles bonded via the parallel bond model. As a result of the heterogeneity in rock specimen, the failure criterion of bonded particle is coupled by the shear and tensile strengths, which follow a normal probability distribution. The Kaiser effect is simulated in the fracture process, for a cubic rock specimen under uniaxial compression with a constant rate. The AE number is estimated with breakages of bonded particles using a pair of parameters, in the temporal and spatial scale, respectively. It is found that the AE numbers and the elastic energy release curves coincide. The range for the Kaiser effect from the AE number and the elastic energy release are the same. Furthermore, the frequency-magnitude relation of the AE number shows that the value of B determined with DEM is consistent with the experimental data.

The Mechanical Characteristics and Damage Model of Helan Mountain Rock based on Acoustic Emission

With the risk of disappearing for the rock paintings considering long-term exposure in Helan Mountain,the freeze-thaw(F-T)cycling experiments were carried out with 12-hour F-T cycling(0,10,20,30,and 40 F-T cycles)under five kinds of confining pressures(5,10,20,30,and 40 MPa).The acoustic emission(AE)detect technology was used to reveal the rock fracturing characteristics during the triaxial compression test whole process.The stress-strain relation changes along with different confining pressures and F-T cycles.Peak stress and residual stress changes along with different confining pressures and damages,and the variation of axial stress-AE ringing counts-time changes along with different confining pressures and F-T cycles.The damage variable with AE parameter under F-T and force coupling was defined for the first time,and the damages model was established.The experimental results show that the F-T cycles lead to the decrease of rock strength and the gradual transformation of compression failure mode from brittleness to plasticity.The confining pressure provides a certain ability to resist deformation and inhibit crack growth for rock samples after F-T cycles.The temporal and spatial evolution law of AE counts well corresponds to the loading and failure process of the rock samples.The AE 3D positioning technology can accurately capture the development position and direction of internal cracks and pores of rock,and the failure form is conical shear failure.The established damage model has a better fittingness between the theoretical calculation results and the test results,and is reasonable to be used in the future for protection of Helan Mountain rock painting.

Coal Rock Condition Detection Model Using Acoustic Emission and Light Gradient Boosting Machine

Coal rock mass instability fracture may result in serious hazards to underground coal mining.Acoustic emissions(AE)stimulated by internal structure fracture should carry lots of favorable information about health condition of rock mass.AE as a sensitive non-destructive test method is gradually utilized to detect anomaly conditions of coal rock.This paper proposes an improved multi-resolution feature to extract AE waveform at different frequency resolutions using Coilflet Wavelet Transform method(CWT).It is further adopt an efficient Light Gradient Boosting Machine(LightGBM)by several cascaded sub weak classifier models to merge AE features at different views of frequency for coal rock anomaly damage recognition.The results denote that the proposed method achieves excellent recognition performance on anomaly damage levels of coal rock.It is an effective method to detect the critical stability further to predict the rock mass bursting in time.

Progressive Failure Analysis of Quasi-isotropic Self-reinforced Polyethylene Composites by Comparing Unsupervised and Supervised Classifications of Acoustic Emission Data

Unsupervised and supervised pattern recognition( PR)techniques are used to classify the acoustic emission( AE) data originating from the quasi-isotropic self-reinforced polyethylene composites,in order to identify the various mechanisms in the multiangle-ply thermoplastic composites. Ultra-high molecular weight polyethylene / low density polyethylene( UHMWPE / LDPE)composites were made and tested under quasi-static tensile load. The failure process was monitored by the AE technique. The collected AE signals were classified by unsupervised and supervised PR techniques, respectively. AE signals were clustered with unsupervised PR scheme automatically and mathematically. While in the supervised PR scheme,the labeled AE data from simple lay-up UHMWPE / LDPE laminates were utilized as the reference data.Comparison was drawn according to the analytical results. Fracture surfaces of the UHMWPE / LDPE specimens were observed by a scanning electron microscope( SEM) for some physical support. By combining both classification results with the observation results,correlations were established between the AE signal classes and their originating damage modes. The comparison between the two classifying schemes showed a good agreement in the main damage modes and their failure process. It indicates both PR techniques are powerful for the complicated thermoplastic composites. Supervised PR scheme can lead to a more precise classification in that a suitable reference data set is input.

Investigating the mechanical and acoustic emission characteristics of brittle failure around a circular opening under uniaxial loading

The size of underground openings in rock masses in metal mines is critical to the performance of the openings. In this study, the mechanical and acoustic emission (AE) characteristics of brittle rock-like specimens containing a circular opening with different ratios of opening diameter to sample size λ (λ = 0.1, 0.13, 0.17, 0.2, and 0.23) were investigated under uniaxial compression with AE monitoring. The results indicate that the opening size strongly affected the peak strength and the elastic modulus. Crack initiation first started from the upper surface of the specimens, not from the periphery of the openings. Tensile and shear cracks coexisted on the roof and floor of the specimens, whereas tensile cracks were dominant on the two sides. The fracture mode of samples with openings was partially affected by the relative size of the pillars and openings. The AE response curves (in terms of counts, cumulative energy, cumulative counts, and b-value) show that brittle failure was mainly a progressive process. Moreover, the AE information corresponded well with microcrack evolution in the samples and thus can be used to predict sample failure.

Effect of Rock Structure on Statistical Characteristics of Acoustic Emission

A comparative study on acoustic emission during deformation of two kinds of granites with different structures under triaxial compression was performed using a new acoustic emission recording system with full-waveform record and broad-dynamic range. One is the Inada aplite-granite of homogeneous structure from Japan and the other is the Mayet granite with cemented natural joints from France. For the former granite, acoustic emission events are dispersed randomly and there is no clear clustering along the major fracture. For the latter granite, acoustic emission events are mainly concentrated near the joints. Acoustic emission events occur synchronously with the volumetric dilatation in the former one but far earlier than the volumetric dilatation in the latter one. The two kinds of granites are also clearly different in the frequency spectrum of acoustic emission. The former has a narrower frequency band and a higher frequency component, whereas the latter has a wider frequency band and generally a

Rock burst proneness prediction by acoustic emission test during rock deformation

Rock burst is a severe disaster in mining and underground engineering,and it is important to predict the rock burst risk for minimizing the loss during the constructing process.The rock burst proneness was connected with the acoustic emission(AE) parameter in this work,which contributes to predicting the rock burst risk using AE technique.Primarily,a rock burst proneness index is proposed,and it just depends on the heterogeneous degree of rock material.Then,the quantificational formula between the value of rock burst proneness index and the accumulative AE counts in rock sample under uniaxial compression with axial strain increases is developed.Finally,three kinds of rock samples,i.e.,granite,limestone and sandstone are tested about variation of the accumulative AE counts under uniaxial compression,and the test data are fitted well with the theoretic formula.

Characteristics of acoustic emission signals in damp cracking coal rocks

A uniaxial load experiment on coal rocks at different stress rates was carried out, based on the characteristics of acoustic emission (AE) signals in cracking coal rocks, decomposition, de-noising and reconstruction for the AE signals through wavelet packet transform for solving the current problems created by the presence of noise in AE signals and the existing problems in AE signal processing. The results show that the various characteristics of AE signals in coal rocks cracking under different situations can be clearly reflected, after the AE signals are de-noised by the wavelet packet. Compared to dry coal rocks, the number of AE occurrences in damp coal rocks was significantly reduced, as well as the average amplitude. The number of AE occurrences in damp and dry coal rocks clearly increased with increases in the loading rate, but the largest amplitude of the AE signals in damp coal rocks has been reduced. There is no clear evidence of change in dry coal rocks.

The study of acoustic emission (AE) forecasting coal and rock disaster technique

Introduced the coal and rock AE propagation rule,wave guide fixing technics onAE sensors,and AE forecasting coal and rock disaster on the scene and so on,The coaland rock AE propagation rule that follows the exponent attenuation function on different AEfrequencies,different quality factors and different propagation distances were analyzedand deduced by theory,numerical simulation,and by actual experiment.Consequently,itwas deduced that the coal and rock AE propagation rule follows the exponent attenuationfunction.Based on the correlative theory of wave dynamics and AE sensor,the AE waveguide propagation mechanical model on the sensor fixing manner is found,and the relationsof displacement and speed and acceleration between the AE signal source and theAE signal receiving terminal are presented.The effect of the AE sensor fixing manners oncoal and rock surfaces,coal and rock bottoms and wave guides were studied by actualexperiment.For the results,the effect of the AE sensor fixing manner on wave guides isbetter than on coal and rock surfaces,and was equivalent to the fixing manner on coal androck bottoms.Based on the above study results,actual coal and rock dynamistic disasterswere successfully forecasted.

Acoustic emission characteristics of rock under impact loading

Acoustic emission tests were performed using a split Hopkinson pressure bar system(SHPB) on 50-mm-diameter bars of granite, limestone, sandstone and skarn. The results show that the amplitude distribution of hits is not well centralized around 50 d B, and that some hits with large amplitudes, usually larger than 70 d B, occur in the early stages of each test, which is different from the findings from static and low-loading-rate tests. Furthermore, the dominant frequency range of the recorded acoustic emission waveforms is between 300 k Hz and 500 k Hz, and frequency components higher than 500 k Hz are not significant. The hit with the largest values of amplitude, counts, signal strength, and absolute energy in each test, displays a waveform with similar frequency characteristics and greater correlation with the waveform obtained from the elastic input bar of the split Hopkinson pressure bar system compared with the waveforms of the other hits. This indicates that the hit with the largest values of amplitude, counts, signal strength, and absolute energy is generated by elastic wave propagation instead of fracture within the rock specimen.