Mechanical properties and damage evolution characteristics of waste tire steel fiber-modified cemented paste backfill

During the process of constructional backfill mining, the cemented paste backfill (CPB) typically exhibits a high degree of brittleness and limited resistance to failure. In this study, the mechanical and damage evolution characteristics of waste tire steel fiber (WTSF)-modified CPB were studied through uniaxial compression tests, acoustic emission (AE) tests, and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The results showed that the uniaxial compressive strength (UCS) decreased when the WTSF content was 0.5%, 1%, and 1.5%. When the WTSF content reached 1%, the UCS of the modified CPB exhibited a minimal decrease (0.37 MPa) compared to that without WTSF. When the WTSF content was 0.5%, 1%, and 1.5%, peak strain of the WTSF-modified CPB increased by 18%, 31.33%, and 81.33%, while the elastic modulus decreased by 21.31%, 26.21%, and 45.42%, respectively. The addition of WTSF enhances the activity of AE events in the modified CPB, resulting in a slower progression of the entire failure process. After the failure, the modified CPB retained a certain level of load-bearing capacity. Generally, the failure of the CPB was dominated by tensile cracks. After the addition of WTSF, a gradual increase in the proportion of tensile cracks was observed upon loading the modified CPB sample to the pore compaction stage. The three-dimensional localization of AE events showed that the WTSF-modified CPB underwent progressive damage during the loading, and the samples still showed good integrity after failure. Additionally, the response relationship between energy evolution and damage development of WTSF-modified CPB during uniaxial compression was analyzed, and the damage constitutive model of CPB samples with different WTSF contents was constructed. This study provides a theoretical basis for the enhancement of CPB modified by adding WTSF, serving as a valuable reference for the design of CPB constructional backfill.