We investigate by means of computer simulations the effect of structural disorder on the statistics of cracking for a thin layer of material under uniform and isotropic drying. For this purpose, the layer is discretized into a triangular lattice of springs with a slightly randomized arrangement. The drying process is captured by reducing the natural length of all springs by the same factor, and the amount of quenched disorder is controlled by varying the width ξ of the distribution of the random breaking thresholds for the springs. Once a spring breaks, the redistribution of the load may trigger an avalanche of breaks, not necessarily as part of the same crack. Our computer simulations revealed that the system exhibits a phase transition with the amount of disorder as control parameter: at low disorders, the breaking process is dominated by a macroscopic crack at the beginning, and the size distribution of the subsequent breaking avalanches shows an exponential form. At high disorders, the fracturing proceeds in small-sized avalanches with an exponential distribution, generating a large number of microcracks, which eventually merge and break the layer. Between both phases, a sharp transition occurs at a critical amount of disorder ξ(c)=0.40±0.01, where the avalanche size distribution becomes a power law with exponent τ=2.6±0.08, in agreement with the mean-field value τ=5/2 of the fiber bundle model. Moreover, good quality data collapses from the finite-size scaling analysis show that the average value of the largest burst ⟨Δ(max)⟩ can be identified as the order parameter, with β/ν=1.4 and 1/ν≃1.0, and that the average ratio ⟨m(2)/m(1)⟩ of the second m(2) and first moments m(1) of the avalanche size distribution shows similar behavior to the susceptibility of a continuous transition, with γ/ν=1, 1/ν≃0.9. These results suggest that the disorder-induced transition of the breakup of thin layers is analogous to a continuous phase transition.
A 2D, hexagonal in geometry, statistical model of fracture is proposed. The model is based on the drying fracture process of the bamboo Guadua angustifolia. A network of flexible cells are joined by brittle junctures of fixed Young moduli that break at a certain thresholds in tensile force. The system is solved by means of the Finite Element Method (FEM). The distribution of avalanche breakings exhibits a power law with exponent −2.93(9), in agreement with the random fuse model (Bhattacharyya and Chakrabarti, 2006) [1].
I have performed experimental measurements of acoustic emission signals resulting from the drying process of Phyllostachys Pubescens bamboo. The emphasis was on identifying individual events, and characterize them according to their time span and energy release. My results show a histogram of experimental squared voltage distributions nicely fit into a power law with exponent of −1.16, reminiscent of scale free phenomena. I have also calculated the average signal shape, for different time spans of the system, and found an asymmetrical form. The experimental evidence points to the system having an isolated large crack at the beginning of the simulation.
The Cell Network Model is a fracture model recently introduced that resembles the microscopical structure and drying process of the parenchymatous tissue of the Bamboo Guadua angustifolia. The model exhibits a power-law distribution of avalanche sizes, with exponent −3.0 when the breaking thresholds are randomly distributed with uniform probability density. Hereby we show that the same exponent also holds when the breaking thresholds obey a broad set of Weibull distributions, and that the humidity decrements between successive avalanches (the equivalent to waiting times for this model) follow in all cases an exponential distribution. Moreover, the fraction of remaining junctures shows an exponential decay in time. In addition, introducing partial breakings and cumulative damages induces a crossover behavior between two power-laws in the avalanche size histograms. This results support the idea that the Cell Network Model may be in the same universality class as the Random Fuse Model. Statistical models of fracture Finite Element Method Computational mechanics of solids. PACS 02.50.-r,05.90.+m,46.50.+a,62.20.F-, 62.20.M-arXiv:1008.0609v1 [cond-mat.soft]
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