The paper analyzes the effects of filling times and filling interval time on the acoustic emission characteristics and coda wave characteristics of layered cemented tailings backfill under uniaxial compression and, to a certain extent, enriches the study of layered cemented tailings backfill in this field. The work aims to monitor the early warning of layered cemented tailings backfill with different layering factors during deformation and damage by the changing law of acoustic emission and ultrasonic signals. By conducting uniaxial compression tests, acoustic emission, and ultrasonic tests of layered cemented tailings backfill, the acoustic emission parameters and their fractal characteristics of layered cemented tailings backfill with different layering factors during uniaxial compression were calculated. Meanwhile, the variation law of the coda wave velocity variation rate of layered cemented tailings backfill during uniaxial loading was analyzed using coda wave interferometry. The test results show the feasibility of using acoustic emission and ultrasonic means to monitor and warn about the deformation damage of layered cemented tailings backfill.

The guided wave technique is applied to slope stability monitoring to overcome the high attenuation characteristics of acoustic emission propagation in rock and soil materials. The shear tests of “guided wave meter” (GWM) with different deformation rates were carried out, and the effects of the material and particle size of the coupling medium and the diameter of the waveguide rod on the flexural guided wave ring down count were studied, and the relationship between the deformation rate of the slope and the flexural guided wave parameters was analyzed. The results show that the flexural guided wave ring down count rate increases with the increase of deformation in the loading process. The GWM filled with quartz sand particles produces more flexural guided wave ring down counts than those filled with gravel particles. From the twelve groups of GWM shear tests, it can be seen that the GWM with the combination of 16 mm waveguide rod and 4–8 mm quartz sand produces the highest cumulative flexural guided wave ring down counts. The combination is used as an optimized GWM. By applying different deformation rates to the optimized GWM, it was found that the flexural guided wave ring down count rate at different deformation rates tended to increase and was distributed in a fan shape. The cumulative flexural guided wave ring down count has an excellent linear correlation with the deformation. The slope of the cumulative ring down count curves and the deformation curves are obtained separately, which shows that the deformation rate has an excellent linear relationship with the slope of the cumulative ring down count curve, and the slope of the cumulative ring down count curve increases with the increase of the deformation rate. It provides theoretical guidance for quantifying the slope deformation rate using the flexural guided waves.