ABSTRACT
Acoustic emission (AE) techniques provide a convenient tool for the study of deformation and failure of geologic materials. These range from small scale phenomena such as dislocation motion, dissolution, grain growth, and microfracture generation and propagation; to larger scale phenomena such as inter- and intra-granular displacement, compaction, and macroscopic fracture. Unfortunately these techniques have not been extensively applied in the study of mechanical behavior of salt.
The current paper will briefly describe the basic AE concepts and experimental techniques, and review the literature relative to the application of AE techniques to the study of the mechanical behavior of salt. The major thrust of the paper will be the application of the AE technique to the study of the incremental creep behavior of a number of different salt types. In these studies both short term (1 × 103s) and long term (100 × 103s) incremental loading experiments have been carried out on intact specimens, and AE and longitudinal and transverse strains have been measured. The time-dependent variation of longitudinal strain, and acoustic emission is considered along with the correlation of creep strain and AE.
