Implications for identification of principal stress directions from acoustic emission characteristics of granite under biaxial compression experiments

The rock fracture characteristics and principal stress directions are crucial for prevention of geological disasters. In this study, we carried out biaxial compression tests on cubic granite samples of 100 mm in side length with different intermediate principal stress gradients in combination with acoustic emission (AE) technique. Results show that the fracture characteristics of granite samples change from `sudden and aggregated' to `continuous and dispersed' with the increase of the intermediate principal stress. The effect of increasing intermediate principal stress on AE amplitude is not significant, but it increases the proportions of high-frequency AE signals and shear cracks, which in turn increases the possibility of unstable rock failure. The difference of stress in different directions causes the anisotropy of rock fracture and thus leads to the obvious anisotropic characteristics of wave velocity variations. The anisotropy of wave velocity variations with stress difference is probable to identify the principal stress directions. The AE characteristics and the anisotropy of wave velocity variations of granite under two-dimensional stress are not only beneficial complements for rock fracture characteristic and principal stress direction identification, but also can provide a new analysis method for stability monitoring in practical rock engineering.