Experimental study and numerical modeling of brittle fracture of carbonate rock under uniaxial compression

•The brittle carbonate rock taken from the Tarim Oilfield is tested in laboratory experiment under uniaxial compression.•The AE and CT technology are used to study the micromechanical performance of rock under uniaxial compression.•The PFC model is used to simulate the fracture of brittle rock.

The brittle carbonate rock taken from the Tarim Oilfield is tested in laboratory under uniaxial compression. The acoustic emission (AE) is used to monitor the microcracking activity in rock during the experiment. Moreover, the 3D tomograms of carbonate rock after uniaxial compression are obtained by using CT imaging technology, which indicates that microcracks mutually interconnect and eventually form macroscopic fractures after failure. The PFC2D is used to model the behavior of brittle rock including microcracks propagation. The stress–strain curve and cracks distribution in rock model are obtained from the PFC simulation. The numerical results agree with the experimental test well.