MULTIFRACTAL CHARACTERISTICS AND ACOUSTIC EMISSION OF COAL WITH JOINTS UNDER UNIAXIAL LOADING

In order to explore the causes of acoustic emission (AE) signals during coal failure, the coal samples with original joints were subjected to uniaxial compression experiments, and the AE signals were monitored by AEwin Test for Express-8.0. Based on the multifractal theory, the multifractal characteristics of AE were analyzed. The results showed that the AE counts and accumulative counts change over time corresponded well with the load-time, which reflected the degree of crack evolution and loading. During the initial loading stage, the cracks expanded gradually along the trace of the original cracks, which could induce a few AE events, while with the increase of load, the cracks enlarged gradually and then joined together to form a macroscopic fracture, which would cause much more AE events within a larger value. Multifractal spectrum [f(alpha)-alpha] of AE was more concentrated in the right side, illustrating that the frequency of small signals was greater than that of the large signals in AE sequences, which revealed cracks expanding and microfracture events dominated during the loading process. The greater the multifractal spectrum width (Delta alpha) was, the larger the AE signals differences were, which reflected that AE varied more intensely. The more developed the original cracks, the more obvious the multifractal characteristics. This research revealed the causes and percentage of the AE events within small or large signals, which would help us to recognize crack evolution of coal and generation mechanism of AE.