Research on the Failure Evolution Process of Rock Mass Base on the Acoustic Emission Parameters

Abstract

Fracture mechanics behavior and acoustic emission (AE) characteristics of fractured rock mass are related to underground engineering safety construction, disaster prediction, and early warning. In this study, the failure evolution characteristics of intact and fracture (e.g., single fracture, parallel fractures, cross fractures, and mixed fractures) coal were studied and contrasted with each other on the basis of the distribution of max amplitude of AE. The study revealed some meaningful results, where the value of b (i.e., the distribution characteristic of max amplitude of AE) could represent the failure evolution process of intact and fractured coal. The maximum amplitude distribution of AE events was characterized by Gaussian normal distribution, and the probability of the maximum amplitude of AE events corresponding to 35∼50 dB was the largest. In the stress range of 60∼80%, AE events and maximum amplitude increased rapidly, and the corresponding b value decreased. The energy of AE events showed a downward trend after reaching the maximum value at about 80% stress level. Under the same stress level, the more complex the fracture was, the larger the b value of coal–rock mass was, and the stronger the inhibition effect on the fracture expansion caused by the internal fracture distribution was. Due to the anisotropy of coal–rock mass with a single crack, the distribution of the b value was more discrete, while the anisotropy of coal–rock mass with mixed crack decreased, and the dispersion of the b value decreased. The deformation of cracked coal mainly caused by the adjustment of cracks during the initial loading b value experienced a trend of decreasing first, then increasing, and then decreasing in the loading process. When the load reached 0.8 times of the peak strength, the b value had a secondary decreasing trend, indicating the macroscopic failure of the sample, which could be used as a precursor criterion for the complete failure of coal–rock mass.