Issue Europhys. Lett. Volume 66, Number 1, April 2004 Page(s) 55 - 61 Section Electromagnetism, optics, acoustics, heat transfer, classical mechanics, and fluid dynamics DOI 10.1209/epl/i2003-10152-9

Europhys. Lett., 66 (1) , pp. 55-61 (2004)
DOI: 10.1209/epl/i2003-10152-9

Fracture precursors in disordered systems

G. Meacci^{1, 2}, A. Politi¹ and M. Zei<sup>3

1</sup>  Istituto Nazionale di Ottica Applicata - L.go E. Fermi 6, 50125 Firenze, Italy
²  Max Planck Institute for Physics of Complex Systems Nöthnitzer Straße 38, 01187 Dresden, Germany
³  CECM-CNRS-Vitry - 15 rue Georges Urbain, 94407 Vitry-sur-Seine, France

(Received 2 October 2003; accepted in final form 2 February 2004)

Abstract
A two-dimensional lattice model with bond disorder is used to investigate the fracture behaviour under stress-controlled conditions. Although the cumulative energy of precursors does not diverge at the critical point, its derivative with respect to the control parameter (reduced stress) exhibits a singular behaviour. Our results are nevertheless compatible with previous experimental findings, if one restricts the comparison to the (limited) range accessible in the experiment. A power law avalanche distribution is also found with an exponent close to the experimental values.

PACS
46.50.+a - Fracture mechanics, fatigue and cracks.
62.20.Mk - Fatigue, brittleness, fracture, and cracks.
05.70.Ln - Nonequilibrium and irreversible thermodynamics.

© EDP Sciences 2004

What is OpenURL?