Analysis of fracture modes and acoustic emission characteristics of low-frequency disturbed coal rock bodies with different cyclic amplitudes

Frequent mining operations significantly disturb the security of deep weakly cemented rock roadways in western mining areas, constituting one of the primary causes of deformation, instability, and failure within the coal-rock body. In this paper, dynamic uniaxial compression tests of soft rock-coal combinations under low-frequency disturbance with different cyclic amplitudes were conducted based on acoustic emission to elucidate fracture modes. The findings are as follows: Different cycle amplitudes manifested significant degradation effects on the soft rock-coal combination. With increasing cycle amplitude, the proportion of tensile cracks initially decreased before subsequently increasing, demonstrating a general upward trajectory. The sudden increase in the acoustic emission RA value, the large decrease in the b-value, and AE counts reaching the peak mean that failure and destabilization of the specimen begin to occur. The results of this study will furnish theoretical direction for dynamic disaster monitoring and early warning in soft rock mines located in western mining regions. The failure behavior of soft rock-coal combination under low-frequency disturbance with different cyclic amplitudes was investigated. The changes of acoustic emission RA and b value can be used as precursor warning information for dynamic damage of soft rock-coal combination. The failure during low-frequency disturbance increases gradually, and the growth rate increases with the increase of amplitude.