Fractals and scaling in fracture induced by microcrack coalescence

C. Lu, Y. W. Mai, Y. Bai

Research output: Journal article publicationJournal articleAcademic researchpeer-review

9 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

A numerical model is proposed to simulate fracture induced by the coalescence of numerous microcracks, in which the condition for coalescence between two randomly nucleated microcracks is determined in terms of a load-sharing principle. The results of the simulation show that, as the number density of nucleated microcracks increases, stochastic coalescence first occurs followed by a small fluctuation, and finally a newly nucleated microcrack triggers a cascade coalescence of microcracks resulting in catastrophic failure. The fracture profiles exhibit self-affine fractal characteristics with a universal roughness exponent, but the critical damage threshold is sensitive to details of the model. The spatiotemporal distribution of nucleated microcracks in the vicinity of critical failure follows a power-law behaviour, which implies that the microcrack system may evolve to a critical state.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)67-75
Number of pages9
JournalPhilosophical Magazine Letters
Volume85
Issue number2
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Feb 2005
Externally publishedYes

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Condensed Matter Physics

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