As heterogeneous brittle rocks, Inada granite, Kitagi granite and Mannari granitewere

used for AE source location studies. In these rocks, the process of occurrence of AE
events before the main rupture is divided into the following three stages: (A) Initial
stage in which no appreciableAE events occur; (B) In this stage,AE events begin to
occur and their sources are distributed randomly in the specimen; (C) The last stage
in which sources of AE events are concentrated in limited regions. Typical examples
are explained below.
Figures 5.55.7 show source locations in a specimen of Inada granite (I4). The
right picture in Fig. 5.5 shows a typical simple pattern of one-dimensional source
location in the OL direction as a function of time. Different diameters of solid circles
indicate different magnitudes of AE events. The left picture in Fig. 5.5 shows the
applied tensile stress as a function of time. At the right side of the right picture, stages
A, B, C1, C2 and C3 are indicated. AE events begin to occur at a certain stress level
and increase with the increase of the applied stress. In stage B, sources of AE events
appear randomly in the direction of tensile stress. In the next stage (C), sources begin
to concentrate in a certain region and AE events continue to occur in this region up
to the main rupture. Activity in other regions decreases gradually with time. And
just before the rupture, source locations of AE events are completely limited to the
Source location of AE 223
Figure 5.5. Source locations of AE events in the OL direction as functions of time in Inada
granite specimen (I4). The applied stress in the tensile side is shown as a function of time in
the left figure. StagesA, B and C are shown in the right side.
above-mentioned region where the main rupture will occur. The total frequency
distribution of AE sources in the OL direction has a single sharp peak.
Figure 5.6 shows the two-dimensional source locations in successive stages B, C1,
C2 and C3. In stage B,AE sources are distributed at random in the stressed region. At
this stage, the location of the impending main rupture cannot be predicted. In stage
C1, AE events begin to concentrate in a limited region. In stages C2 and C3, the
source region develops in the direction perpendicular to the applied tensile stress up
to the main rupture.
The successive development of the active area before the main rupture is represented
by the main crack pattern in Fig. 5.7. The highly active areas, the shaded areas in
224 Experimental rock mechanics
Figure 5.6. Two-dimensional source locations of AE events in successive stages in Inada
granite specimen (I4). Stages B, C1, C2, and C3 correspond to those in Fig. 5.5.
Figure 5.7. Successive development of the source regions of AE events in the stages C1C3
and an observed main crack.
Source location of AE 225
Figure 5.8. Source locations of AE events in the OL direction as functions of time in Inada
granite specimen (I5). The applied stress in the tensile side is shown as a function of time in
the left figure. StagesA, B and C are shown in the right side.
this figure, successively migrated outward, and an area where the activity had been
markedly high in the preceding stage became relatively calm in the subsequent stage.
This feature in the fracturing process is also seen in the seismic activity in largescale
fields. In the right picture in Fig. 5.7, the main crack pattern observed after the
experiment is compared withAEsource locations. The above-mentioned development
of theAE source region indicates the successive propagation of the main tensile crack
perpendicular to the direction of tensile stress.
Figures 5.85.10 show similar AE source locations in an Inada granite specimen
(I5). Figure 5.8 shows a typical simple pattern of one-dimensional source location in
the OL direction (the direction of tensile stress). AE events begin to occur in stage
B, and AE sources appear at random in this stage. In the next stage (C), AE sources
226 Experimental rock mechanics
Figure 5.9. Two-dimensional source locations of AE events in successive stages in Inada
granite specimen (I5). Stages B, C1, C2, and C3 correspond to those in Fig. 5.8.
Figure 5.10. Successive development of the source regions of AE events in the stages C2,
C31, C32 and C33 and an observed main crack.
Source location of AE 227
concentrate in the limited region where the main rupture will occur. StagesA, B, C1,
C2 and C3 are indicated in the right side of this figure.
The two-dimensional source locations in successive stages are shown in Fig. 5.9.
In stage B, the AE activity is noticeably higher and source locations are also random
and no locations suggesting the future development of the main crack can be found.
In the next stage, C1, some weak concentration of AE sources can be recognized
at the center of the investigated area. The concentration of sources in the limited
area becomes evident in the following stage, C2, and the AE source area extends
to the whole width of the sample in the last stage, C3. In Fig. 5.10, the successive
development of theAEsource region in stagesC2 and C3 is shown with the main crack
pattern observed after the experiment. In stage C32, the AE source region developed
upward and this region clearly curved in the left direction near the upper boundary of
the specimen. As can be seen in the right picture in Fig. 5.10, the main crack observed
after the experiment curves in the left direction near the upper boundary. Thus, the
active AE source region agrees very well with the observed crack pattern. This result
directly shows the high accuracy of the AE source determination in this experiment.
The above-mentioned two examples are typical simple cases in which the total
frequency distribution of AE sources in the direction of tensile stress (OL direction)
has a single sharp peak. However, there are also more complex cases.
Figure 5.11 shows a case in which the total frequency distribution ofAE sources in
the OL direction has two peaks at zones I and II. The micro-fracturing process is also
divided into stagesA, B and C. In stage B,AE sources are nearly randomly distributed,
and at stage C1, they concentrate in zones I and II, and AE source locations at the
last stage C2, are limited to zone I.
In Fig. 5.12, the number ofAE events originating from zones I and II are shown as a
function of time, together with that of the total number. The total frequency curve may
suggest an apparent stationary occurrence of AE events in stages B and C1, except
for the last stage (C2). However, the two lower curves indicate a remarkable change
during this fracturing process. In stage B, AE activity markedly increased in zone II,
but it was very low in zone I. In stage C1, the activity gradually decreased in zone II,
but it began to increase in zone I. At the last stage (C2), the activity completely
decayed in zone II, but increased rapidly in zone I. The micro-fracturing activity in
zone I built up to the main rupture. Thus, adjacent zones closely interact, and the
active region migrates to the adjacent region. Migration of seismic activity on a large
scale sometimes occurs in natural earthquakes.
Figure 5.13 shows the case of Kitagi granite (K2) in which the pattern ofAE source
location is more complex. This figure shows AE source locations in the OL direction
as a function of time. A total distribution of AE sources along the OL direction has
three marked peaks at zones I, II and III, as shown at the top of this figure. In
Figure 5.14, the frequency distribution of AE sources along the OL direction in stage
(1) (020 minutes), stage (2) (20 minutes40 minutes) and stage (3) (40 minutes
51 minutes) are shown with the total frequency distribution [(1)+(2)+(3)] and the
crack pattern observed after the experiment. The above-mentioned three peaks I, II
228 Experimental rock mechanics
Figure 5.11. Source locations of AE events in the OL direction as functions of time in Inada
granite specimen (I2). The applied stress in the tensile side is shown as a function of time in
the left figure. The top figure is the total number (n) of AE events along the OL direction.
and III correspond well to the locations of observed cracks. As can be seen in this
figure, the most active region was located at zone I in the initial stage (1), at zone II
in the middle stage (2) and at zone III in the last stage (3). Thus, the active region
systematically migrated with time along the OL direction.
In Fig. 5.15, the elastic energies (relative values) released as AE events in zones I,
II and III are shown as functions of time. The activity in zone I abruptly increased
in stage (1) and gradually decreased in the following stages. This curve is similar
to that of some earthquake swarms. With the decay of the activity in zone I, the
Figure 5.12. Frequency curves of AE events originated from the whole region (top), I zone
(middle) and II zone (bottom). StagesA, B and C correspond to those on Fig. 5.11.
Figure 5.13. Source locations ofAE events in the OL direction as functions of time in Kitagi
granite specimen (K2). The top figure shows the total number of AE events along the OL
direction.
230 Experimental rock mechanics
Figure 5.14. Left figure: distributions of sources of AE events in the OL direction in stages
(1), (2), (3); Right figure: the total number ofAE events (1)+(2)+(3) and the observed main
crack pattern in the rock specimen.
Figure 5.15. Energies (in relative scale) of AE events originated from I, II and III zones as
function of time in Kitagi granite specimen (K2).
Source location of AE 231
Figure 5.16. Source locations of AE events in the OL direction as functions of time in
Shirochoba andesite specimen (S2). Stage A, B and C are indicated at the top. Right figure:
the frequency distribution of AE events along OL line.
activities in zones II and III increase gradually in stage (2) and markedly in the last
stage (3). The curve shapes in zone I and zone III are contrary to each other, and
the curve in zone II seems to show an intermediate pattern between the adjacent zones
I and III.