Abstract: Natural rock mass is not a uniform continuum due to discontinuous interfaces such as faults and bedding planes between rock layers, and the propagation law of acoustic emission signals will inevitably change when they pass through faults and bedding planes. Therefore, studying the propagation law of acoustic emission signals in faults has become one of the key topics in rock mechanics. Based on the Huygens principle, the wave front equation under the condition of heterogeneous media containing faults was derived, and 45°, 60°, 75° and other types of fault specimens were made through laboratory similar simulation model tests. The acoustic emission signals across faults were monitored and recorded by combining ultrasonic tachymeter and DS5-16B full-information acoustic emission signal analyzer. Nonlinear fitting and numerical calculation of Matlab software are used to study the influence of faults and the number of bedding planes of different inclination angles on the propagation speed and signal characteristics of acoustic emission signals. The results show that the propagation speed of acoustic emission signals increases gradually with the increase of fault dip Angle, and the propagation speed is positively correlated with fault dip Angle. The larger the fault dip Angle is, the faster the signal propagation speed will be, and the propagation speed will attenuate after the signal passes through the fault, and the larger the fault dip Angle is, the smaller the proportion of velocity attenuation will be. The propagation velocity is attenuated by the bedding plane, and the single bedding plane has little influence on the velocity, while the two bedding planes have great influence on the velocity. The fault will make the maximum value of the signal decrease, the main frequency decrease, and the frequency interval move to the low frequency direction. The larger the fault inclination, the larger the maximum value, the main frequency and the frequency interval. One layer has little influence on the signal, which is basically the same as the time-frequency characteristics of the signal without stratification, while the two layers have a greater influence on the signal, which will greatly reduce the maximum value, main frequency and frequency interval of the signal. The existence of fault will cause the instantaneous energy of acoustic emission signal to decrease greatly, and the smaller the inclination Angle, the more serious the attenuation is. The research results can provide theoretical basis for the establishment of wave velocity model under the ray theory.