40 research outputs found
Strength Reduction in Electrical and Elastic Networks
Particular aspects of problems ranging from dielectric breakdown to metal
insu- lator transition can be studied using electrical o elastic networks. We
present an expression for the mean breakdown strength of such networks.First,
we intro- duce a method to evaluate the redistribution of current due to the
removal of a finite number of elements from a hyper-cubic network of
conducatances.It is used to determine the reduction of breakdown strength due
to a fracture of size .Numerical analysis is used to show that the
analogous reduction due to random removal of elements from electrical and
elastic networks follow a similar form.One possible application, namely the use
of bone density as a diagnostic tools for osteorosporosis,is discussed.Comment: one compressed file includes: 9 PostScrpt figures and a text fil