Moment tensor analysis of the acoustic emission source in the rock damage process

To further investigate the mechanism of acoustic emission (AE) in the rock fracture experiment, moment tensor analysis was carried out. The AE sources characterized by crack sizes, orientations and fracture modes, are represented by a time-dependent moment tensor. Since the waveforms recorded by AE monitors correlate to the moment tensors, we prefer to select the P wave amplitude from the full-space Green's function of homogeneous and isotropic materials to determine the six independent components of the moment tensor. The moment tensor analysis was used to investigate the AE sources recorded in the experiment, and three types of micro-cracks were found, which are tensile mode, shear mode and mixture of the tensile and shear mode. In addition, the motion of micro-cracks was decided by eigenvectors of moment tensor. Results indicate that the moment tensor analysis may be used as a measurement to reflect the damage evolution of rock specimen.