Study of the internal re-breaking characteristics of broken limestone during compression

Abstract The internal inhomogeneous deformation and re-breaking characteristics of broken rock and coal during compaction are the basis for understanding porous structure evolution of the caved zone and then affect the enrichment of coalbed methane (CBM) in mining gob. In this paper, compression-AE experiments on limestone are carried out using a self-developed AE testing system. An AE location method, which is especially suitable for broken porous media is proposed. The results show that 1) the compression process of broken limestone can be divided into three stages: initial compression, linear compression, and plastic compression. There is a good correspondence between AE counts, energy and compression stages. 2) Broken limestone has layered re-breaking characteristics: the particle re-breaking firstly occurs in the middle layer and gradually moves toward the upper and lower layers as compression degree increases. The ultimate re-breaking degree in upper and middle layers is larger than that in lower layer. 3) The final screened results when strain rate reaches 0.24 show that the reduction of porosity is larger in upper and middle layers than that in lower layer under loading. The lower layer owns the largest porosity due to relative smaller compression degree.