4 research outputs found
Failure time and microcrack nucleation
The failure time of samples of heterogeneous materials (wood, fiberglass) is
studied as a function of the applied stress. It is shown that in these
materials the failure time is predicted with a good accuracy by a model of
microcrack nucleation proposed by Pomeau. It is also shown that the crack
growth process presents critical features when the failure time is approached.Comment: 13 pages, 4 figures, submitted to Europhysics Letter