A numerical study on cracking processes in limestone by the b-value analysis of acoustic emissions

To better investigate the cracking processes under uniaxial compression, a numerical approach using bonded-particle model (BPM) was adopted to simulate the loading processes and AE events of limestone. To validate the model, a physical experiment with acoustic emission (AE) monitoring was performed. It revealed that the AE parameters in the BPM including crack number and AE event were generally comparable with the AE count and AE hit in the experiments. The b-value of AE does not accurately evaluate the degree of damage in rocks. But it can indicate the different states of damage during cracking processes.