Crossover of Failure Time Distributions in a Model of Time-Dependent Fracture

Abstract

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An important question in the theory of fracture is what kind of lifetime distributions may exist for materials under load. Here, this is studied in the context of a one-dimensional fracture model with local load sharing under a constant external load, “creep.” Simulations of the system with Weibull distributed initial lifetimes for the elements show that the limiting distribution follows from extreme statistics and takes the Gumbel form eventually, with longer and longer crossovers in the system size from a Weibull-like distribution, depending on the initial Weibull exponent.

Keywords

• fracture
• fiber bundle
• strength distribution
• extreme value statistical distributions
• time-dependent failure