Abstract: The acoustic emission (AE) testing of curtain body samples，which are made of gravels taken from the east slope of Yanshan iron ore，was carried out under different confining pressure with TAW-3000 electro-hydraulic triaxial rock mechanics testing machine and PCI-Ⅱ acoustic emission monitoring system.The law of spatial evolution of fractures in curtain body sample is analyzed according to the AE location and AE event energy in different stress stage，and the change rule of fractal dimension was studied.The experimental results indicates that the greater the confining pressure，the greater the compressive strength and the longer the time for reaching the peak load，the longer the curve segment and the smaller the curvature of corresponding time-stress curve，the more obvious the plastic characteristic of curtain body sample，and the more the number of AE location points is.The basic characteristics of the fractal dimension change keep the model of ascending，descending and ascending.The sharp increase of AE events energy and AE location points，and the second increase of fractal dimension can be the prediction of rupture.Under the same stress state，the interface between gravel and mortar in the curtain body sample will rupture firstly，secondly the cracking of interface of sand and cement.Finally，the crack extends into the hardening cement slurry.

Key words: Acoustic emission, AE events energy, Curtain body, Spatial location, Fracture evolution, Fractal dimension