Progressive Failure and Acoustic Emission Characteristics of Red Sandstone with Different Geometry Parallel Cracks under Uniaxial Compression Loading

The geometric distribution of initial damages has a great influence on the strength and progressive failure characteristics of the fractured rock mass. Initial damages of the fractured rock were simplified as parallel cracks in different geometric distributions, and then, the progressive failure and acoustic emission (AE) characteristics of specimens under the uniaxial compression loading were analyzed. The red sandstone (brittle materials) specimens with the parallel preexisting cracks by water jet were used in the tests. The energy peak and stress attenuation induced by the energy release of crack initiation were intuitively observed in the test process. Besides, three modes of rock bridge coalescence were obtained, and wing crack was the main crack propagation mode. The wing crack and other cracks were initiated in different loading stages, which were closely related to the energy level of crack initiation. The propagation of wing crack (stable crack) consumed a large amount of energy, and then, the propagation of shear crack, secondary crack, and anti-wing crack (unstable crack) was inhibited. The relationship between the crack propagation mode and the geometric distribution of existing cracks in the specimen was revealed. Meanwhile, the strength characteristic and failure mode of fractured rock with the different geometric distributions of preexisting crack were also investigated. The energy evolution characteristics and crack propagation were also analyzed by numerical modeling (PFC2D).