Acoustic emission characteristics and fracture mechanism of cemented tailings backfill under uniaxial compression: experimental and numerical study

Cemented tailings backfill (CTB) is the most cost-effective and environmentally friendly method to recycle tailings for filling mining. It is of great significance to study the fracture mechanism of CTB for safe mining. In this study, three cylindrical CTB samples with a cement-tailings ratio of 1:4 and a mass fraction of 72% were prepared. An acoustic emission (AE) test under uniaxial compression (UC) with WAW-300 microcomputer electro-hydraulic servo universal testing machine and DS2 series full information AE signal analyzer was carried out to discuss the AE characteristics of CTB, such as hits, energy, peak frequency, and AF-RA. Combined with particle flow and moment tensor theory, a meso AE model of CTB was constructed to reveal the fracture mechanism of CTB. The results show that (1) the AE law of CTB under UC has periodic characteristics, which can be divided into the rising stage, stable stage, booming stage, and active stage. (2) The peak frequency of the AE signal is mainly focused on three frequency bands. The ultra-high frequency AE signal may be the precursor information for CTB failure. (3) The low frequency band AE signals represent shear crack, while the medium and high frequency band AE signals represent tension crack. The shear crack initially decreases and then increases, and the tension crack is the opposite. (4) The fracture types of the AE source are divided into tension crack, mixed crack, and shear crack. The tension crack is dominant, while a larger magnitude AE source is frequently shear crack. The results can provide a basis for the stability monitoring and fracture prediction of CTB.