Environ Earth Sci (2016) 75:828
DOI 10.1007/s12665-016-5649-7
ORIGINAL ARTICLE
Spatial evolution and fractal characteristics of natural fractures
in marbles under uniaxial compression loading based
on the source location technology of acoustic emission
Jianliang Pei1 • Wenping Fei1 • Jianfeng Liu1
Received: 17 November 2015 / Accepted: 16 April 2016 / Published online: 5 May 2016
Ó Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2016
Abstract Natural fractures are widely distributed in rocks.
Generally, there are four types of natural fractures, i.e.,
single, parallel, intersected and mixed. Uniaxial compres-
sion tests on naturally fractured marble samples, taken
from the transportation tunnels of Jinpin II hydropower
station in southwestern China, are conducted with a
MTS815 rock mechanics testing system. The acoustic
emission (AE) events are monitored by PCI-II AE system.
The spatial evolutions of different natural fractures have
been successfully located and tracked according to the AE
ringing number. Experimental results indicate that the
failure process of fractured marble is locally progressive.
The AE event accumulation is strongly related to the
loading process and stress redistribution in rock. For the
former two types, i.e., single and parallel natural fractures,
the spatial AE event distributions in marbles are relatively
simpler than those of the other two. The corresponding
strong AE event numbers (with ringing number greater
than 20) increase with the compressive stress along the
naturally fractured surfaces when the stress is low. When
the compressive stress is close to the failure strength of the
rock, AE events first appear around the natural fracture tip,
then spread along the final rupture direction. For the marble
containing intersected natural fractures, strong AE events
are approximately uniformly distributed at the initial stage
of the compression test. Later, the AE events increase when
the compressive stress gets higher continuously, and then
& Wenping Fei
wpfei@scu.edu.cn
1
State Key Laboratory of Hydraulics and Mountain River
Engineering, School of Water Resources and Hydropower,
Sichuan University, No. 24, South Section 1, Yihuan Road,
Chengdu 610065, China
concentrate around the intersection points of fractures. The
case with mixed natural fractures has the most complex AE
event distribution than those of the others. However, it is
still not difficult to determine the internal weakness parts
and stress field based on the spatial AE event distribution.
The fractal dimension of the spatial AE event distribution,
capable of describing the mechanical behavior and struc-
tural damage of rock materials, is estimated by a newly
developed analysis method. The parameters of AE events
for different types of natural fractures, such as AE accu-
mulative value, amplitude and absolute energy, are statis-
tically analyzed. The present testing scheme can be an
initial step toward further development of in situ micro-
seismic monitoring techniques for complex fractures.
Moreover, the obtained experimental and analytical results
can facilitate the investigation on rock mass failure and
instability mechanism.
Keywords Rock mechanics  Acoustic emission  Natural
fracture  Rock failure  Crack propagation process
Introduction
Acoustic emission (AE) is a kind of physical phenomenon
which often happens among brittle materials, such as rocks,
under internal or external forces. The elastic energies of
such materials will be released immediately, causing
transient elastic waves due to the internal deformation and
crack propagation. As an accompanying phenomenon of a
rock failure process, AE contains full information about
internal deformation characters and mechanical behaviors
of the material (Kranz 1983; Lockner 1993).
AE technique is one of the nondestructive testing tech-
niques which can obtain information about the crack
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propagation and abrupt failure of the structure. Thus, AE
technique is helpful in identifying crack development in
rocks, predicting the failure process of rock and the
occurrence of earthquake. Since the AE events exist in the
internal structure of compressed rocks, the corresponding
AE monitoring technologies have been widely applied in
evaluations of original ground stress, earthquake sequence,
microcracking mechanism and stability of rock mass
(Hardy 1972; Katsuyama 1997).
Researches on the AE spatial source location started
from late 1960s. Mogi (1968) first investigated the two-
dimensional (2D) AE source location of granite with
bending deformations. Scholz (1968) obtained the spatial
locations of the AE events of brittle rocks under uniaxial
compression through six AE monitoring sensors. Taking
the benefits of multi-channel and high-speed data acquisi-
tion systems and the improvement of AE monitoring
equipments, researches on spatial source location of AE
events have been widely conducted. Using an AE moni-
toring method, Jansen et al. (1999) studied the full process
of a rock failure, including three-dimensional (3D)
microcrack damage accumulation, crack nucleation and
macrocrack propagation. Lei et al. (2004) quantified the
AE temporal–spatial distributions of the rocks containing
fractured surfaces or joints under triaxial compression by
using a 32-channel waveform recording system. In order to
investigate the fractural instability mechanism, Zhao et al.
(2008a, b) conducted experiments to study the spatial AE
event distributions during the rock failure processes with
different rock samples based on AE monitoring and
locating technologies. Li et al. (2010) acquired the changes
in spatial correction length of AE events during fracture
process of granite and marble specimens subjected to
uniaxial compression, which showed that 3D source
locating of AE events can directly reflect the process of
initiation, propagation and evolution of microcracks and
the stress redistribution in the specimens. Georg et al.
(2010) observed the formation of borehole breakouts in
tests performed on sandstone samples using advanced
acoustic emission analysis and microstructure
observations.
Considering that the rock is a kind of complex and
multi-phase composite materials, Sobolev et al. (1987)
proposed a concrete fault model to study the spatial AE
event distribution in rock samples containing geological
discontinuities. Jiang et al. (2003) designed a collinear
disconnected faults physical model by a prefabricating
crack technique and preliminarily studied the temporal–
spatial evolution of fracture events on mesoscale gabbro
samples under a biaxial compression. Based on an AE
locating technology, Zhao et al. (2007) studied the 3D
spatial evolution process of inner microcracks (from ges-
tation, growing, propagation and nucleation to perforation)
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Environ Earth Sci (2016) 75:828
in granite samples with different prefabricated cracks.
Vidya Sagar and Raghu Prasad (2013) presented an
experimental study on variation in acoustic emission
parameters during cracking in reinforced concrete beams
subjected to incremental cyclic loading in laboratory con-
ditions. Haeri et al. (2013) carried out the uniaxial com-
pression experiments on rock-like Brazilian disk samples
containing a single flaw, and identified different crack
types, which can be applied to further study crack coales-
cence and failure mode. Zhou et al. (2014) conducted
experiments on rock-like materials containing multiple
man-made flaws and demonstrated different crack propa-
gation types in detail. Liu et al. (2015) studied the rect-
angular rock-like samples containing two parallel
preexisting flaws under uniaxial compression experimen-
tally and evaluated the influence of the flaws on crack
growth.
Fractal method is a kind of useful mathematical tool to
explain some natural phenomena and describe microseismic
activities in rock engineering (Nanjo and Nagahama 2004;
Wang et al. 2009). Hirata et al. (1987) studied the AE events
of fine-grained Oshima granodiorites under creep deforma-
tions (the surrounding pressure was 40 MPa) and obtained
the fractal characteristics of the spatial distribution of the AE
sources. Yuan and Li (2009) analyzed the fractal properties
of the spatial AE event distributions during the failure pro-
cess of rock specimens. Experiments on bedded rock salt
specimens under uniaxial compression and indirect tension
were conducted by our recent work (Xie et al. 2011), and a
column covering method was proposed to analyze the fractal
property of the spatial AE event distribution during the rock
damage and failure process. Based on the newly developed
method (Xie et al. 2011), Pei et al. (2010) studied the fractal
dimension of the spatial AE event distribution in granites
under uniaxial compression.
Fractured rock mass widely exists in geotechnical
engineering. AE technique has been widely applied to
study the behaviors of cracks in recent years. It plays an
important role in monitoring the propagation and evolution
of cracks in materials. Existing research works focus more
on samples with precut and man-made flaws. However,
natural fractures in original rock are much more complex
than precut or man-made ones. Very few experimental
studies have been performed on naturally fractured rocks,
especially those containing different fracturing combina-
tions. The present work explores the dynamic spatial
evolution process of natural fractures with various spatial
combination modes in fractured marble samples under
uniaxial compression by using the AE locating technology.
The newly developed column covering method is used to
analyze the fractal characteristics of the spatial AE event
distributions of marble samples. The natural fractures and
their propagation processes are characterized exactly based
Environ Earth Sci (2016) 75:828 Page 3 of 15 828

on the collected AE ringing numbers. The research results
are helpful for further investigation on the fracture mech-
anism of rock mass and improvement of monitoring
accuracy of rock mass instability.
According to the above method, only one set of rea-
sonable coordinates of AE source will be obtained if
enough sensors are introduced and uniformly arranged. In
this test, 8 sensors are settled uniformly around each
sample, in order to improve the accuracy of AE spatial
location estimation and to a certain extent reduce the effect
of AE amplitude attenuation.
The source location theory of AE events
Spatial fractal dimension of AE research can be used to
determine the spatial locations of AE events. Several AE
sensors, usually exhibited as an array, are arranged on
some certain fixed points. Through measuring the arrival
time difference of an event to sensors, the locations of AE
events are determined by the following formula:
qffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
ðxi  xs Þ2 þ ðyi  ys Þ2 þ ðzi  zs Þ2 ¼ vðti  tÞ
where (xi, yi, zi) is the coordinates of the i th sensor to
receive the P-wave; (xs, ys, zs) is coordinates of AE source;
v is the velocity of P-wave; t is the exact time when an
event originated; ti is the receiving time of the i th sensor.
There are four unknown variables in formula (1) for a
single sensor. Therefore, the spatial location of AE source
can be determined by four noncoplanar sensors.
Defining the relative time difference between the i th
and the first sensors to receive the P-wave.
Dti ¼ ti  t1
qffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
Dti ¼ ðxi  xs Þ2 þ ðyi  ys Þ2 þ ðzi  zs Þ2
qffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
 ðx1  xs Þ2 þ ðy1  ys Þ2 þ ðz1  zs Þ2 =v
Step 5: Calculating the coordinates of AE source (xs, ys,
zs) when X2 reaches its minimum.
Column covering fractal model of AE
Rupture occurs in loaded rocks. During a rupture process,
each AE event corresponds to a rupture surface or volume.
Proved by experiments, AE sequence of rock material
follows a fractal distribution not only in time domain, but
also in spatial domain.
For the cylindrical rock specimens, column covering
method is more appropriate. With the method, the spatial
distribution characteristics of AE events are apt to be
described exactly. Due to the shape of rock specimens, it is
very convenient for the method to calculate the fractal
dimension of the spatial AE event distribution according to
the coordinates of AE events. Therefore, the method can be
used to determine the critical value of rock failure, predict
the rock bursts and evaluate the stability of rock mass.
When spatially distributed AE events are covered by a
ð1Þ small sphere with radius r (Fig. 1), the relationship
between the AE event number within the sphere and the
radius is Xie (1996):
MðrÞ / r 3 ð5Þ
According to the basic fractal theory, the relationship
between the AE event number and the radius can be
expressed as:
MðrÞ / Cr D ð6Þ
where C is a material constant. Equation (6) can be further
ð2Þ expressed as:
ð3Þ

If there have more than 4 sensors, the final location

coordinates of AE source is determined by the following
steps:
Step 1: Calculating the actual observed time difference
Dti,obs by the actual arrival time of the receiving sensors
according to formula (2).
Step 2: Calculating the coordinates of AE source (xs, ys,
zs) by four noncoplanar sensors according to formula (1).
Step 3: Calculating the calculated time difference Dti,calc
according to formula (3).
Step 4: For each potential AE source coordinates,
P
calculating X2 = (Dti,obs - Dti,calc)2.
Fig. 1 Spherical and column covering methods. a Spherical cover-
ing. b Column covering

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log MðrÞ ¼ log C þ D log r ð7Þ Experimental techniques

Similarly, when the AE events are covered by a column
with radius r and height h, the relationship between the AE
event number and the radius of the column is:
MðrÞ / r 2 h ð8Þ
Note that the height–radius ratio C1 is a constant, Eq. (8)
can be expressed as:
MðrÞ / C1 r 3 ð9Þ
Therefore, the fractal expression of the spatial AE event
distribution by column covering method is:
log MðrÞ ¼ log C þ log C1 þ D log r ð10Þ
For a given radius r, a value of M(r) can be obtained through
Eq. (10). In a double logarithmic coordinate system, point
series (log r, log M(r)) corresponding to given radii can be
portrayed. The spatial AE event distribution has fractal char-
acteristic in the range of a given scale if those points approx-
imately distribute along a straight line. The slope of the line is
the exact fractal dimension of the spatial AE event distribution.
Fig. 2 Basic type of naturally fractured rock samples. a Single.
b Parallel. c Intersected. d Mixed
Rock sample preparation
Rock samples used in experiment are naturally fractured
marble samples taken from the transportation tunnels of
Jinpin II hydropower station in southwestern China. The
buried depth of the rock samples is about 2010 m.
Interbedding marbles from Yantang Formation are taken
from transportation tunnel A, and the stake number is
AK12?621, while marbles from Baishan Formation are
taken from transportation tunnel B, and the stake
number is BK12?028.7. The rock sample preparation
strictly follows related standards and regulations. The
size of sample is /50 mm 9 100 mm
(diameter 9 height).
According to the spatial geometrical distribution of
natural fractures in rock samples, these natural fractures are
statistically divided into four basic types, i.e., single, par-
allel, intersected and mixed types. The interface of each
naturally fractured surface in marble samples is closed
tightly and filled with calcite crystal. Representative frac-
tured marble samples of the four types chosen in the
experiment are demonstrated in Fig. 2. The corresponding
structural characteristics of naturally fractured marble
samples are illustrated in Table 1. The series number of the
samples consists of two parts. The first part represents the
group number of the interbedding marble, i.e., group A
from Yantang Formation and B from Baishan Formation.
Group A can be further divided into two subgroups. They
are Group A1 under axial compression with direction
parallel to the bedding surface and A2 with that vertical to
the bedding surface. The letter of the second part is
abbreviation of the basic type of fractured samples, i.e., S
for simple, P for parallel, I for intersected and M for mixed.
The number of the second part represents experiment
number of each group.

Table 1 Structural
No. b Dip g Connection t Volume Type Formation
characteristics of naturally
angle/° rate/% density/(10-2 mm-1)
fractured rock samples
B-S2 69.9 88.0 1.22 Single Baishan
A1-P2 71.5 100.0 0.87 Parallel Yantang
71.1 54.0 1.22
51.0 59.9 0.70
A2-I3 67.6 62.2 1.17 Intersected Yantang
44.7 17.3 0.24
A1-M2 80.1 55.4 1.44 Mixed Yantang
80.0 46.4 1.14
22.3 59.4 0.65
For mixed type of fractured rock, only three main cracks are listed

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According to the results of X-ray diffraction on min-
eral components, the main components of interbedding
marbles from Yantang Formation are 54.7 % of calcite
and 45.3 % of dolomite. The lithology of marbles from
Baishan Formation is more homogeneous, mainly con-
sisting 91 % of dolomite, only 8.6 % of calcite and 0.4 %
of mica.
Test procedure and method
The uniaxial compression experiments with AE measure-
ment are carried out by a MTS815 rock testing system in
Sichuan University. The maximum axial load is 4600 kN.
The axial measuring range of uniaxial extensometer is
-2.5 to 12.5 mm, while the transverse travelling range is
-4 to ?4 mm, and that along the axial direction is
0–100 mm (±50 mm). Measuring accuracy of each testing
sensor is 0.5 % of the indicating value. More details about
the testing system can be found in Refs. Yuan and Li
(2009), Xie et al. (2011).
Considering that marble samples selected for the
experiments are hard and brittle, sudden failure of the rock
samples may damage the sensor. The loading rate is set as
20 kN/min and controlled by axial load and circumferential
deformation when the samples are under elastic and plastic
deformations, respectively. The circumferential deforma-
tion rate is controlled as 0.02 and 0.04 mm/min before and
after the compressive strength, respectively.
At the same time, because the rock sample is selected
from a deep underground tunnel, the characteristic of rock
burst during excavation is obvious. In order to obtain the
rock burst proneness index of the rock sample [the corre-
sponding results can be found in Ref. Xie et al. (2011)], an
unloading process is included in the whole testing process,
i.e., when the loading stress is about 0.8 rc, the testing
force will be unloaded to 0.05 rc, then reloaded to the end
of the test.
AE system
A 3D source locating and real-time monitoring AE system
with twelve channels made by PAC can work together with
the loading system. Due to the advantages of high pro-
cessing speed, low noise, low threshold value and reliable
stability, noise can be minimized by using PCI-II board. In
addition, the system can count and store AE events auto-
matically to realize real-time monitoring and 3D source
locating by using 18-bit A/D conversion technology.
External parameters, such as load, temperature, stress,
strain, can be processed synchronously. For the AE system,
its main amplifier is set as 40 dB, the threshold value is
45 dB, the frequency of sensor is 200 kHz, and sampling
frequency is 40 MHz.
Page 5 of 15 828
Fig. 3 Layout of probes and AE sensors. (1) Circumferential
extensometer. (2) Axial extensometer. (3) AE sensor. (4) Strain
meter. (5) PTFE slice
A group of 8 probes is introduced to collect data to
obtain higher test accuracy for 3D source locating of AE
events in naturally fractured samples. PTFE slices are
placed on both sides of the sample to eliminate the friction
effects. Vaseline is used between AE sensor and sample for
better contacting. Both the sample and AE sensors are fixed
by clamps. The sensors are calibrated before the experi-
ments. Installation of AE probes and arrangement of sen-
sors are shown in Fig. 3.
Many factors affect the accurate location of AE source,
such as identification error of arrival time, nonuniformity
of wave velocity, nonpoint source characteristic of AE,
accuracy of observation system. Therefore, it is difficult to
determine the exact location of AE source and estimate the
source location error. For this reason, manual trigger tests
by breaking pencil leads on the surface of the samples are
executed before actual tests. The manual trigger testing
results on the rock sample A1-M2 are listed in Table 2,
which show us that the absolute errors of AE source
location are all within 5 mm.
Test results and discussion
Marble sample containing a single fracture
The testing results by AE technology on marble sample
containing a single fracture are shown in Fig. 4. The
relationship curves between axial compression stress and
time, AE event cumulative counts and time are shown in
Fig. 4a. The spatial AE event distributions under different
stresses are shown in Fig. 4b. Considering that AE ringing
number can reflect the strength and frequency of AE events
to some extent, energy of AE events with higher ringing
number is generally higher. In this paper, AE events with
ringing number more than the average (default value = 20)
are thus defined as strong AE events. Failure characteristics
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Table 2 AE location results by manual trigger testing on the rock sample A1-M2
No. Actual location of AE source (x, y, z)/mm Location of AE source obtained by sensors (x0 , y0 , z0 )/mm Absolute errors
Dx/mm Dy/mm Dz/mm

1 (17.96, 17.96, 25) (17.74, 17.35, 26.04) -0.22 -0.61 1.04

2 (-17.96, 17.96, 25) (-18.98, 18.71, 24.07) -1.02 0.75 -0.93
3 (-17.96, -17.96, 25) (-16.73, -19.02, 23.27) 1.23 -1.06 -1.73
4 (17.96, -17.96, 25) (15.25, -15.83, 21.50) -2.71 2.13 -3.50
5 (25.40, 0, 50) (22.96, 2.95, 53.42) -2.44 2.95 3.42
6 (0, 25.40, 50) (1.69, 22.93, 54.47) 1.69 -2.47 4.47
7 (-25.40, 0, 50) (-23.37, -2.24, 47.32) 2.03 -2.24 -2.68
8 (0, -25.40, 50) (-1.48, -23.29, 52.42) -1.48 2.11 2.42
9 (17.96, 17.96, 75) (18.67, 20.63, 78.30) 0.71 2.67 3.30
10 (-17.96, 17.96, 75) (-15.86, 17.25, 77.13) 2.10 -0.71 2.13
11 (-17.96, -17.96, 75) (-19.70, -15.75, 71.18) -1.74 2.21 -3.82
12 (17.96, -17.96, 75) (19.66, -16.14, 77.39) 1.70 1.82 2.39
The origin of Cartesian coordinate system is the bottom center of the cylindrical sample, and z-axis is vertical upward

Fig. 5 AE spatial evolutions in a typical sample with a single natural

fracture using a constant stress increment (Dr = 0.2rc). a AE events.
b Strong AE events

Fig. 4 Testing results of typical sample with single natural fracture
under uniaxial compression. a Relationships between axial stress, AE
cumulative events and time. b Spatial AE event distributions under
various stress level
of a sample cannot be fully captured by cumulative AE
events. Therefore, AE events should be divided into several
stages according to a specific stress increment (in the
present work, the increment Dr = 0.2 rc, where rc is the
compressive strength of rock).
Naturally fractured surface and final failure surface are
depicted in red lines, as shown in Figs. 4 and 5. Turning
points exist in naturally fractured surface with average dip
angle of 69.9°. The maximum connection rate reaches
88.0 % along final failure surface in those cases. Therefore, a
large number of AE events happen in sample B-S2 at the
initial compacting stage under a low stress, as demonstrated
in Fig. 4a. At this stage, the relationship curve between the
accumulative ringing number and time rises sharply. When

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the loading stress reaches 0.2 rc, the total amount of AE loaded large block with the fact that the strong AE events and
events is 2793, which is much larger than that of intact rock the periphery of defect are nearly in the same plane.
samples. The AE events of intact rock samples under the
same loading stress are approximately uniformly distributed. Marble sample containing parallel fractures
Although AE events in Fig. 4b are distributed in large area
within the rock sample, some AE events tend to centralize The marble sample A1-P2 contains three parallel naturally
around the naturally fractured surface due to the inconsistent fractured surfaces, which are numbered as , ` and ´.
deformation on both sides of the failure surface. After The geometric parameters of the sample are shown in
ignoring the AE events with ringing number less than 20, it is Table 1. Testing results and the spatial evolutions of AE
found that strong AE events (totally 353) are mainly con- events with a fixed stress increment Dr = 0.2 rc are shown
centrated around the turning point of the failure surface, as in Figs. 6 and 7, respectively.
shown in Fig. 5b. Densely distributed AE events represent The compressive strength of sample A1-P2 is relatively
significant stress concentration, squeezing and friction low (rc = 25.3 MPa). When the stress reaches 0.2 rc, a total
actions near the fracture. After the initial compacting stage, of 209 AE events are detected. The spatial AE event distri-
the natural fracture is nearly closed. The AE event number bution is more homogeneous than that of the marble sample
under applied load from 0.2 rc to 0.4 rc is decreased largely containing a single fracture. Sixty-six strong AE events are
(totally 964), especially the strong AE events (only 29), as distributed at the end of No. ` fractured surface, indicating
shown in Fig. 5b. that stress concentration appears even under a low stress level.
The strong AE events distribute almost along the fractured If the loading continues, AE events increase and mainly
surface. When the load is between 0.4 rc and 0.6 rc, the AE distribute between Nos.  and ` fractured surfaces on the
event number increases to 2483, forming an AE event gath- top of the rock sample, while strong AE events are still
ering area connecting both ends along the naturally fractured concentrated around No. ` fractured surface with a ten-
surface in rock sample (Fig. 5). The area is largely consistent dency of stretching downwards along the fractured surface.
with the final failure path of the rock sample. As shown in During the subsequent stage, when the stress is less than
Fig. 4a, the total lasting time is 521.5 s (from 460.7 to 982.2 s) the previous maximum stress, internal AE events increase
when the applied load increases from 0.55 rc to 0.6 rc. During significantly. The phenomenon is quite different from that
this time, the natural fracture begins to crack and propagate of a single fracture.
toward the end of the rock sample. Due to the propagation and
evolution of the crack, the stress redistribution occurs in the
rock sample, which results in several drops of axial com-
pression. During this stage, the AE event number is up to 1956,
with 193 strong AE events. Spatial evolution of AE events
shows that strong AE events are distributed homogeneously
along the both sides of naturally fractured surface, indicating a
relative sliding tendency between the both surfaces within the
rock sample. Due to the relatively simple spatial distribution
of single natural fracture, the number and spatial distribution
of AE events has a good corresponding relation with the ini-
tiation and propagation of the natural fracture.
As shown in Fig. 4a, stress decreases sharply after the
stress reaches 48.6 MPa (0.65 rc). The rock sample is then
further cut into two independent blocks by the failure surface
of the sample according to the spatial AE event evolution.
The failure of the compressing sample is locally progressive.
The small blocks are apt to slide under a continue load,
resulting in a zigzag-shaped cycled loading–unloading
curve. Due to the loading capacity of the large block (con-
taining defects), the curve is upward with oscillations. The
oscillating process can be well explained by that the spatial
location of AE events mainly concentrated in the top region
Fig. 6 Testing results on a typical sample with parallel natural
of the large block in the following stress stage. Moreover, AE fractures under uniaxial compression loading. a Relationships
events start to appear at the bottom of the rock sample as between axial stress, AE cumulative events and time. b Spatial AE
shown in Fig. 5. Vertical failure surface is expected in the event distributions under various stress level

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Fig. 7 AE spatial evolutions in a typical sample with parallel natural
fractures using a constant stress increment (Dr = 0.2rc). a AE
events. b Strong AE events
Further analysis on spatial evolution of natural fractures
shows that the spatial AE event distribution of rock sample
A1-P2 is roughly uniform in each stress stage among
0.2–0.8 rc. However, strong AE events are distributed
around No. ` fractured surface during the whole process.
When the stress increases continuously, AE events tend to
concentrate on the fractured surfaces, obviously revealing
the progressive characteristic of local damages. During the
stress stage of 0.8–1.0 rc, strong AE events increase
rapidly and concentrate at the bottom of the rock sample
with complex stress field. Axial splitting failure is found on
the rock sample along the end of No. ` fractured surface.
At the same time, a vertical splitting crack appears along
the outcropping trace of No. ´ fractured surface at the
bottom of the rock sample.
Marble sample containing intersected fractures
Two intersected naturally fractured surfaces are contained
in the rock sample A2-I3, which are defined as No. 
(upper) and No. ` (lower) fractured surfaces, respectively.
The average dip angle of No.  fractured surface is rather
steep (67.6°), while that for No. ` fractured surface is
moderate (44.7°). The corresponding testing results and
spatial evolutions of AE events are shown in Figs. 8 and 9,
respectively.
Only few AE events happen in rock sample A2-I3 at the
initial compacting stage since No.  fractured surface is
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Environ Earth Sci (2016) 75:828
Fig. 8 Testing results on a typical sample with intersected natural
fractures under uniaxial compression loading. a Relationships
between axial stress, AE cumulative events and time. b Spatial AE
event distributions under various stress level
twisting and No. ` fractured surface has a moderate dip
angle. When stress reaches 0.2 rc (21.2 MPa), there are
164 AE events distributed uniformly in rock sample.
Strong AE events have no concentration tendency, indi-
cating that the stress at this stage is too low to cause sliding
or dislocation of the fractured surface.
During the stress stage of 0.2–0.4 rc, AE events are
influenced by unloading. At other stages, increasing speed
of AE events keeps unaltered approximately. The spatial
AE event distribution is relatively uniform. There are sel-
dom large cracks caused by sliding and dislocation of
naturally fractured surfaces. During the stress stage of
0.4–0.6 rc, most AE events appear around both the ends of
the rock sample. Strong AE events concentrate along No.
` fractured surface, indicating that this fractured surface
tends to be dislocated gradually.
Influenced by independent tiny blocks cut by two frac-
tured surfaces along the lateral surface of the rock sample,
strong AE events around crossing area of both the fractured
surfaces increase several times during the stress stage of
0.6–0.8 rc. Then AE events spread toward the bottom of
the rock sample, which indicates an obvious stress con-
centration in this area and a probability of vertical failure.
Within the stress stage of 0.8–1.0 rc, cracks continue to
propagate toward both the ends of the rock sample, forming
a large failure surface. Due to the energy absorption by the
Environ Earth Sci (2016) 75:828
Fig. 9 AE spatial evolutions in a typical sample with intersected
natural fractures using constant stress increment (Dr = 0.2rc). a AE
events. b Strong AE events
rock sample and intensive distribution of cracks around the
defected side surface, several vertical splitting failure sur-
faces are observed until final sudden failure happens. There
is a strong correlation between the location of failure sur-
face and the spatial AE event distribution.
At the post-peak stage, the tiny blocks cut by Nos.  and
` fractured surfaces are extruded out, causing sudden
increase of circumferential deformation. Therefore, the
circumferential deformation sensors placed in the middle
part of rock sample are directly influenced. The test
machine is then protected automatically. When the axial
stress declines linearly to 0 MPa, the test is over, as shown
in Fig. 8a.
Marble sample containing mixed fractures
Marble sample A1-M3 contains several crisscrossing nat-
urally fractured surfaces. The corresponding testing results
and spatial evolutions of AE events under uniaxial com-
pression are shown in Figs. 10 and 11, respectively.
The uniaxial compressive strength of rock sample A1-
M2 is 31.85 MPa. AE events increase continuously during
the whole loading stages. Moreover, ascending gradient of
the AE event curve remains unchanged approximately.
When the loading stress reaches 0.2 rc, AE events (to-
tally 321) are mainly distributed within two local regions in
the rock sample. But strong AE events (totally 59) mainly
distribute along the weakest fractured surface. Within the
Page 9 of 15 828
Fig. 10 Testing results on a typical sample with mixed natural
fractures under uniaxial compression loading. a Relationships
between axial stress, AE cumulative events and time. b Spatial AE
event distributions under various stress level
stress stage of 0.2–0.4 rc, strong AE events begin to con-
centrate within the transition region of naturally fractured
surfaces with high connectivity rate. In other words, stress
concentration in this area is remarkable.
Due to the complex mechanical behaviors in rock
sample containing mixed fractures during the stress stage
of 0.4–0.8 rc, AE events do not appear along one of the
naturally fractured surfaces. On the contrary, the AE event
distribution regions overlap mutually and spread all
around. Moreover, strong AE events distribute uniformly,
indicating that stress field becomes more uniform in rock
sample with the increase in the stress. When the rock
sample is close to failure (0.8–1.0 rc), AE events distribute
in all locations of the entire rock sample. Strong AE events
increase sharply to 749, which is 4.43 times of that during
the stress stage of 0.6–0.8 rc.
Failure mode and propagation of natural fractures
The final failure modes of rock samples containing dif-
ferent types of natural fractures are shown in Fig. 12.
Vertical rupture planes appear on the external surface of
rock sample, indicating that the failure of marble samples
is exhibited as axial splitting.
As shown in Fig. 4, the crack of rock sample B-S2
propagates along the rupture plane and marches toward the
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828 Page 10 of 15
Fig. 11 AE spatial evolutions in a typical sample with mixed natural
fractures using a constant stress increment (Dr = 0.2rc). a AE
events. b Strong AE events
sample bottom due to the tensile shear induced by the
dislocation of curved natural fracture surface.
Though there are three parallel natural fractures in rock
sample A1-P2, its fractures distribution is still rather sim-
ple. As shown in Fig. 6, No. ` fracture surface is preferred.
Stress concentration occurs around both the ends of the
sample after the dislocation of the fracture surface. Despite
of the final convergence occurring between No. ` fracture
surface and No. ´, the fracture propagates along axial
direction and breaks through the sample due to the tensile
shear. Nevertheless, the final rupture trace of No. ´ frac-
ture surface has a tendency of closing to No. `, as shown
in Figs. 6 and 7. Unfortunately, limited to the number and
size of the rock samples, merging of parallel natural frac-
tures is not found in this test.
Marble sample A2-I2 contains two coarse naturally
fractured surfaces. The surface trace of No.  is shown as
Fig. 12 Uniaxial compression
failure mode of marble samples
with different natural fractures.
a Single sample. b Parallel
sample. c Intersected sample.
d Mixed sample
123
Environ Earth Sci (2016) 75:828
an obvious twist plane, while that of No. ` is clearly in a
stepwise shape. As shown in Fig. 8, lots of AE events are
triggered by the dislocation and sliding of No. ` fracture
surface during the stress stage of 0.2–0.8 rc. Then AE
events gradually concentrate around the intersecting line of
the both fracture surfaces, where the corresponding
cracking plane starts and propagates toward both the ends
of the rock sample. The final failure mode of the rock
sample is: Firstly, a tiny block is cut by the two fracture
surfaces; crack then happens along the intersecting line and
propagates toward the top of rock sample; finally, the axial
tensile-shear cracking through the sample appears due to
the sliding of No. ` fracture surface.
Rock sample A1-M3 is cut vertically and horizontally
by several naturally fractured surfaces with irregular
shapes. The final failure modes include the tensile-shear
failure caused by fracture propagation and opening failure
of fracture plane caused by tension and compression.
Several opening cracks even appear on the top of rock
sample during the stress adjustment.
AE event ringing number can roughly represent the
energy of AE signal. According to the spatial evolutions of
strong AE events in the single and parallel types of rock
samples, AE event ringing number agrees well with the
location and spatial evolutions of naturally fractured sur-
faces. For intersected type of rock samples, AE event
ringing number is still relevant to naturally fractured sur-
faces. Although mixed type of rock samples are much
complex, the weak parts and corresponding stress field
variation can also be easily determined.
Fractal characteristics of the spatial AE event
distributions in naturally fractured marbles
According to the column covering method, for a given
radius r of a column within the rock sample, the AE event
value M(r) covered by the column can be obtained, as
shown in Fig. 1b. The logarithmic relation curve between
M(r) and r can be plotted and fitted by a straight line.
According to Eq. (10), the fractal dimension Ds of the
spatial AE event distribution is the slope of the fitted line.
Environ Earth Sci (2016) 75:828 Page 11 of 15 828

4 closure of microcracks and the dislocation of microstruc-

tural planes is also relatively uniform. The fractal dimen-
sion Ds of the spatial AE event distribution is relatively
3.5 large (nearly 3.0), with little change. When the test con-
tinues, new microcracks emerge gradually in the rock
sample if the axial compressive stress reaches about
y axis / lg M (r )

3 0.6–0.7 rc. At the same time, the spatial fractal dimension

y =2.214x +0.917, R ²=0.983
y =2.274x +0.765, R ²=0.984
y =2.230x +0.776, R ²=0.981
decreases obviously. New cracks then propagate and con-
y =2.164x +0.800, R ²=0.977
y =2.241x +0.665, R ²=0.973 centrate. Microcracks also gradually gather together around
2.5 y =2.337x +0.455, R ²=0.965 0.1σc
0.2σc
the initial defects. Ds steadily drops and reaches the min-
y =2.600x +0.064, R ²=0.967
0.3σc
y= 2.551x +0.086, R ²=0.954
0.4σc
imum, while the loading stress reaches the maximum. For
y =2.519x +0.052, R ²=0.965
0.5σc
0.6σc
intact loaded rock sample, both the deformation and spatial
2 0.7σc
0.8σc
distribution of microcracks are uniform at the preliminary
0.9σc
y =2.537x -0.463, R ²=0.972
1.0σc
stage. When deformation is large enough, the evolution of
inner microcracks is self similar.
1.5
0.7 0.8 0.9 1 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 Comparing with intact rock, the evolution of the spatial
x axis / lg r AE event distribution in naturally fractured rock is differ-
ent, which is related to the rock material damaged by
Fig. 13 Fitting lines between log M(r) and lg r of the rock sample
B-S2 under various alternative stress levels fractures. As shown in Fig. 14, AE events emerge around
the naturally fractured surfaces at the stress stage of
0–20 % rc. At the same time, Ds in fractured sample are
obviously smaller than that in the intact one, which is
related to the irregular stress distribution caused by the
fractures. Moreover, Ds in single and parallel fractured
samples are smaller than those in the intersected and mixed
fractured samples. It indicates that the inner stress fields of
the two former samples are more heterogeneous than those
of the latter ones. With the closure of naturally fractured
surfaces, the corresponding normal stress (about 0.2–0.5
rc) and friction induced by compacted fractured surfaces
increase. The deformation compatibility between the both
sides of the naturally fractured surface is improved. The
inner stress fields in fractured samples become more uni-
Fig. 14 Fractal dimension of rock samples under various alternative form. Therefore, Ds rise a little. When the shear stress
stress levels between the naturally fractured surfaces is large enough to
resist the friction, the inner stress of fractured samples is
relatively uniform. AE events concentrate around the tip or
The relation curve of log M(r) * log r and corresponding turning point of fractured surfaces. After that, Ds begin to
Ds of the rock sample B-S2 under different compressive decline continuously with the inner damage accumulation
stress levels are shown in Fig. 13. of each sample. Cracks with large scale distributed along
Similarly, the fractal dimension of the spatial AE event the main fracture surface gradually increases. When the
distribution in other naturally fractured rock samples under loading stress reaches the maximum, the main fracture
various alternative stress levels can also be determined, as surface propagates through the sample, and Ds decrease to
shown in Fig. 14. Considering that AE events are caused the minimum.
by microcracks propagation in the rock, the spatial evolu- Therefore, Ds can exactly represent the complexity of
tion of AE event distribution is related to various defects in the spatial AE event distribution. Ds can also reflect uni-
the rock material. formity of inner stress. So, it can be a new index to describe
As shown in Fig. 14, the fractal dimension of AE event the mechanical and damage behaviors of rock materials.
distribution in intact rock sample decreases continuously During the whole test, Ds of intact rock sample keep
during the whole test. At the preliminary loading stage decreasing, which means that the distribution of microc-
(with the stress level about 0–0.5 rc), the initial microde- racks in the rock sample is transferred from ‘‘scattered’’ to
fects distribute uniformly in the intact rock sample. ‘‘concentrated.’’ Nevertheless, Ds of fractured rock sample
Therefore, the spatial AE event distribution caused by the rise first and then fall, demonstrating the ability of self-

123
828 Page 12 of 15
organizing for the structure of fractured rock. A small
fractal dimension means the occurrence of a strong fracture
event. Rising of Ds can be used to evaluate the integrity of
rock structure. Declining of Ds can act as a simple but
valuable criterion to predict the cracking or rupture.
Statistical analysis of AE events for different types
of natural fractures
For different spatial combination types of natural fractures,
the spatial distributions and fractal characteristics of AE
events are different. The parameters of AE events for
single, parallel, intersected and mixed natural fractures,
such as AE accumulative value, amplitude and absolute
energy, are statistically analyzed as follows.
The accumulative value and amplitude curves of AE
events under different stress levels are shown in Fig. 15,
and the absolute energy curves of AE events under dif-
ferent stress levels are shown in Fig. 16. It is necessary to
point out that the AE event parameters after the failure of
rock samples are not included in Figs. 15 and 16.
As shown in Figs. 15 and 16, the AE event parameter
curves (accumulative value, amplitude and absolute
energy) of naturally fractured rock samples under uniaxial
compression loading are well consistent. For rock sample
B-S2 with single natural fracture, influenced by the
Fig. 15 Accumulative value (a)
and amplitude curves of AE
events under different stress
levels. a AE accumulative
value. b AE accumulative
amplitude
(b)
123
Environ Earth Sci (2016) 75:828
lithology of Baishan Formation, a large number of AE
events occur even under a low stress level (r \ 0.2 rc). At
the time of rock failure, the AE accumulative value,
amplitude and absolute energy of sample form Baishan
Formation are 1.6–2.6, 2.1–3.3 and 9–20 times of that of
samples from Yantang Formation, respectively. When the
stress r is about 0.57 rc, the AE events increase steeply in
rock sample B-S2. Whether accumulative amplitude or
absolute energy curve presents an obvious step, which
means the natural fracture begins to crack and propagate.
Under this stress level, crack propagation and stress
adjustment result in a large number of AE events.
Compared with the rock sample B-S2 from Baishan
Formation, less AE events occur under a low stress level
(r \ 0.2 rc) in three rock samples from Yantang Forma-
tion. For the rock sample A1-M2 with mixed natural
fractures, due to its widespread natural fractures and poor
integrity, the AE accumulative value, amplitude and
absolute energy are larger than that of rock samples with
parallel or intersected fractures when r \ 0.8 rc. As shown
in Fig. 5, the AE accumulative value and amplitude curves
increase gently with the stress level. Even during unload-
ing–reloading test in order to obtain the rock burst prone-
ness index, the AE events increase only a little. As shown
in Fig. 16, when the axial compression stress is up to 0.3
rc, the accumulative absolute energy curve of rock sample
Crack propagation and stress adjustment
Unloading and reloading test
67% Crack propagation and stress adjustment
Crack propagation and stress adjustment
Unloading and reloading test
67% Crack propagation and stress adjustment
Environ Earth Sci (2016) 75:828
Fig. 16 Absolute energy curves (a)
of AE events under different
stress levels. a Sample from
Baishan Formation. b Samples
from Yantang Formation
(b)
A1-M2 with mixed natural fractures appears several step-
like slight increases. The unaxial compression test on rock
sample with poor integrity shows that the stress adjustment
is not obvious due to their interaction among several nat-
ural fractures. Therefore, the AE accumulative value,
amplitude and absolute energy of rock sample A1-M2 with
mixed natural fractures are hardly affected by the axial
compression stress level.
Compared with the rock samples with mixed and
intersected natural fractures, the spatial distribution of
parallel natural fractures in rock sample A1-P2 is relatively
simple. Also, the AE accumulative value, amplitude and
absolute energy curves present obvious steps. Because of a
bit more natural fractures, the uniaxial compressive
strength is the minimum among all the samples, only
25.3 MPa (as shown in Fig. 6). Therefore, when r \ 0.85
rc, the AE accumulative value and other parameters of
rock sample A1-P2 with parallel fractures are less than that
of rock samples with mixed and intersected natural frac-
tures. When r is about 0.85 rc, influenced by not only the
sharp stress adjustment around the end of the fractures, but
also cracks initiation and propagation, the AE accumula-
tive value, amplitude and absolute energy curves increase
steeply. The parameters are 2.4, 3.3 and 5.4 times of that of
the stage of r \ 0.85 rc, respectively.
Page 13 of 15 828
Crack propagation and stress adjustment
Unloading and reloading test
67% Crack propagation and stress adjustment
As shown in Fig. 15, the AE accumulative value and
amplitude curves of the rock sample A2-I3 with intersected
natural fractures can be divided into two parts. When
r \ 0.67 rc, the AE accumulative value and amplitude
curves increase slowly. But when r [ 0.67 rc, these curves
increase steeply with the increase of axial compressive
stress. As shown in Fig. 16, when r [ 0.67 rc, the AE
accumulative absolute energy curve appears several step-
like slight increase, whose gradient is steeper than that of
the rock sample A1-M2 with mixed natural fractures. In
general, the stress filed of the rock sample with intersected
natural fractures under uniaxial compression test is rela-
tively uniform, and its stress adjustment is more obvious
than that of rock sample with mixed natural fractures.
So, the AE accumulative value and corresponding sta-
tistical parameters are different for rock samples with dif-
ferent types of natural factures. Because the spatial
distributions of natural fractures in the rock sample B-S2
with simple natural fracture and A1-P2 with parallel natural
fractures are relatively simple, stress concentration phe-
nomenon around the ending of the natural fractures happens
more obviously. Their AE accumulative value, amplitude
and absolute energy curves demonstrate prominent step-like
characteristics. A large number of AE events will occur
during the stage of crake initiation and propagation. The AE
123
828 Page 14 of 15
accumulative value and amplitude curves of the rock sample
A1-M2 with mixed natural fractures increase slowly or
remain unchanged, while the AE accumulative value and
amplitude curves of the rock sample A2-I3 with intersected
natural fractures present two parts with obviously different
gradients before and after r = 0.67 rc. The gradient is gentle
under a low stress level and steep under a high stress level.
Furthermore, the stress fields in the rock sample A2-I3 with
intersected natural fractures and A1-M2 with mixed natural
fractures are relatively uniform. Although the AE accumu-
lative absolute energy curves also demonstrate step-like
characteristics, both the accumulative absolute energy under
the maximum compression stress and the height of steps are
less than those of other two types of rock samples.
Conclusions
Uniaxial compression experiments with AE monitoring on
marble samples containing natural fractures were carried
out. Comparison and analysis work was conducted to
investigate the characteristics of the AE events and fracture
spatial evolution within marble samples containing various
types of natural fractures. The results revealed the crack
propagation processes can be exactly described by the
spatial evolutions of AE events. The main conclusions of
this study are:
1. Failures of naturally fractured marble samples are
locally progressive under compression loads. Internal
natural fissures cause a large number of AE events
even under a low stress level. According to the spatial
location of strong AE events, the dynamic propagation
and evolution of natural fractures in rock samples can
be traced.
2. For samples with a single fracture or parallel fractures,
strong AE events distribute along naturally fractured
surface. A large number of strong AE events gather
around the ends of fractured surfaces and further
extend toward the final failure direction when the stress
is close to its maximum.
3. Strong AE events are distributed relatively uniformly
at initial compacting stage within the samples contain-
ing intersected fractures. However, with continuous
increase of compressive stress, strong AE events
increase and distribute intensively around the crossing
points of fracture surfaces. Moreover, strong AE
events tend to expand toward both ends of the rock
sample.
4. For samples containing mixed fractures, spatial evolu-
tions of strong AE events are more complex. However,
the distribution of strong AE events is more uniform
123
Environ Earth Sci (2016) 75:828
compared with the other fractures with the increase of
compressive stress.
5. Ds can exactly represent the complexity of the spatial
AE event distribution and further describe the mechan-
ical and damage behavior of rock materials. The
decline of Ds indicates the transformation of cracks
distribution from ‘‘scattered’’ to ‘‘concentrated’’ for
intact rock sample. The Ds rise first and then fall for all
fractured rocks, demonstrating the self-organizing
ability of ‘‘concentrated–scattered–concentrated’’ dur-
ing the failure process.
6. The statistical laws are different for rock samples with
different types of natural fractures. For the rock
samples with single or parallel natural fractures, the
AE accumulative value, amplitude and absolute energy
curves present obvious step-like characteristics with
the increase of axial compression stress. These
parameters are very large while failure. For the rock
samples with intersected or mixed natural fractures, the
axial compression level has less impact on the AE
events and their corresponding parameters. The corre-
sponding accumulative curves of the rock sample with
mixed natural fractures basically remain unchanged.
Compared with the stage of low stress level, the
corresponding accumulative curves of rock sample
with intersected natural fractures at the stage of high
stress level have steeper gradients.
Acknowledgments The work is supported by the China National
Natural Science Fund (CSNF) under Nos. 51120145001, 51374148,
51379139 and 51409179. The authors wish to offer their gratitude and
regards to everyone who has been a part and support to this project in
all means.
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