Analysis of Acoustic Emission Energy Distribution and Avalanche Dynamics of Sandstone with Different Particle Sizes

[Image: see text] The mechanical properties of sandstone have an important impact on the stability of the coal mine roof and floor, sandstone gas mining, and underground engineering safety. In order to study the critical characteristics on the failure process of sandstone with different particle sizes under uniaxial compression conditions, avalanche dynamics theory and a critical model are used to analyze the distribution of acoustic emission (AE) parameters, and the maximum likelihood estimation is used to accurately estimate the critical parameters. The results showed that the AE phenomenon of sandstone can be divided into four stages: initial compaction period, quiet period, crack stable growth period and outbreak period. During the process of compression failure, the larger the particle size is, the more seriously the sandstone is damaged. The AE energy probability density distribution follows single power-law distribution, and the AE energy critical exponent is 1.20 and follows the characteristics of scale-free regarding the power-law distribution on the particle sizes. When the stress runs up to 90% of peak stress, the bifurcation ratio increases sharply and shows the characteristics of the critical state. The waiting time and the avalanche size distribution follow double power-law distribution, and the inflection points are 0.03 and 37. Before and after the inflection point, the waiting time critical exponent and the avalanche size critical exponent are 1.90, 0.40 and 2.40, 1.60. This shows that the dynamic evolution process of sandstone under uniaxial compression condition can be characterized well by the fiber bundle model.