Using Acoustic Emission data from triaxial fracture experiments performed in our laboratory on Westerly Granite samples, Andrew Patton published a paper in Physical Rewiew E entitled “Large-scale heterogeneities can alter the characteristics of compressive failure and accelerated seismic release”. The study shows that large-scale heterogeneities introduced to the sample such as a saw-cut notches change the characteristics of the failure point. Specifically, we found that observed accelerated seismic release without a critical point and no change in the acoustic emission size distribution (i.e. Gutenberch-Richter magnitude-frequency distribution). This is contrasting with other experiments and observations of preparatory processes of natural earthquakes, where significant decrease in magnitude-frequency b-value is frequently observed.
Reference:
Patton, A., T. Goebel, G. Kwiatek, and J. Davidsen (2023). Large-scale heterogeneities can alter the characteristics of compressive failure and accelerated seismic release, Phys. Rev. E 108, no. 1, 014131, DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevE.108.014131. [ Article Page ]