Abstract
Rock brittleness is an essential factor affecting underground engineering disasters and energy extraction. A large number of cracks are generated during rock destruction, and many acoustic emission (AE) signals are accompanied. The propagation speed and modes of cracks in different brittle rocks differ during failure, and their AE signals also show differing characteristics. In this study, uniaxial compression experiments cooperating with AE monitoring on rock-like materials with different brittleness were conducted. We found that as the rock brittleness increased, the AE energy increased sharply during loading. During rock failure, the proportion of AE signals with lower RA (rise time/amplitude) and higher AF (average frequency) increased as rock brittleness increased. Based on the experimental results, the AE parameter ibE-value was proposed to evaluate the crack propagation state of the rocks. This ibE-value is also a parameter that determines the crack initiation point and residual stress point. Based on the variation characteristic of the ibE-value during the rock failure process and the first pressure drop after the peak of the rock, two evaluation criteria for rock brittleness were proposed. Compared with other brittleness evaluation criteria, these two evaluation criteria have better discrimination for different brittleness rocks, guiding human underground resource extraction and engineering disaster prevention.
Article highlights
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1.
At the moment of rock failure, the proportion of AE with lower RA and higher AF increases gradually with the increase of rock brittleness.
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2.
Based on the Gutenberg and Richter, we propose an AE index ibE-value, which can reflect the rock’s crack propagation state.
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3.
Based on ibE-value, we propose a brittleness index, which has higher sensitivity and reliability than other brittleness indexes.
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Acknowledgments
This study was financially supported by the Opening Fund of Key Laboratory of Continental Shale Accumulation and Development (North-east Petroleum University), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 42004036, 52074088), Chongqing Science and Technology Commission Projects (Grant Nos. cstc2018jcyj-yszx0005, cstc2020yszx-jcyjX0008). China Postdoctoral Science Foundation (Grant No. 2020M673152).
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Zhang, H., Wang, Z., Song, Z. et al. Acoustic emission characteristics of different brittle rocks and its application in brittleness evaluation. Geomech. Geophys. Geo-energ. Geo-resour. 7, 48 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40948-021-00246-5
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s40948-021-00246-5