Abstract：The failure features of the composite samples under uniaxial loading are discussed. The characteristics of energy dissipation and translation in the process of coal-rock sample failure are analyzed；and an experimental system for analyzing the mechanism and precursory information of the failure of coal-rock composite samples is developed. The system is composed of the thermal infrared(TIR) observation system，the stress and strain measurement system，and the acoustic emission monitoring system. In order to investigate the TIR and acoustic responses of different kinds of coal-rock composite samples，two types of composites are tested，which are composed of three bars of sandstone-coal-mudstone and two bars of sandstone-coal，respectively. The uniaxial compressive load tests are carried out to observe the features of TIR，acoustic emission and strain precursory information in the process of sample failure. The detailed investigations on the precursor information of stress points are conducted based on the TIR images，infrared radiation temperature，infrared radiation images，acoustic emission，and strain date. The analytical results show that the coal-rock composite specimens are under stress accelerated accumulation state before failure. Moreover，it is more difficult to forecast the failure of coal-rock composite samples compared with the failure prediction of normal coal samples.
