Research on Sandstone Damage Characteristics and Acoustic Emission Precursor Features under Cyclic Loading and Unloading Paths

The deformation and failure features of rock formation in deep coal mines are basic mechanical problems in the complex geology environment and complicated excavation process. Under the effect of cyclic loading and unloading, the bearing capacity weakens and damage degree exacerbates significantly, which seriously threatens the safety and stability of the working face. To study the damage characteristics of sandstone, especially the precursor characteristics of acoustic emission (AE), this paper conduct the AE response experiments on sandstone under cyclic loading and unloading. The results show that with the increasing number of cycles, the loading modulus, unloading modulus, total strain energy, elastic energy, and dissipation energy of sandstone in the cycle stage all increase continuously. In the initial loading stage, the sandstone has fewer cycles and lower stress levels, fewer AE ringing counts and energy, and less rock damage. With the increasing cyclic times and loading stress, the damage degree of sandstone increases rapidly in a very short time. The damage variable represented by ringing count is more sensitive than by energy. Just before rock failure, the ringing count and the energy value increase significantly, and the damage curve rises sharply. In addition, AE waveform signals have obvious aggregation characteristics and four main bands. Just before sandstone failure, the main frequency band becomes wider, the low frequency bands f 1 and f 2 become connected, and the main signal frequency appears abnormally low and high. The waveform signals before sandstone instability and failure show a phenomenon where the low-frequency amplitude is generally at a high level, the high-frequency signal decreases, the amplitude becomes low, and the multipeak phenomenon weakens. The above characteristics of the AE time domain and waveform analysis can be used as the precursor characteristics of sandstone failure and instability. This study can reveal the process of the sandstone deterioration and AE response under the cyclic loading and unloading condition, and has certain guiding significance for roof and floor control in deep roadway, instability warming monitor of working faces, and guarantees for safety production.