Damage-Cluster Distributions and Size Effect on Strength in Compressive Failure

Lucas Girard, Jérôme Weiss, and David Amitrano
Phys. Rev. Lett. 108, 225502 – Published 30 May 2012
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Abstract

We investigate compressive failure of heterogeneous materials on the basis of a continuous progressive-damage model. The model explicitly accounts for tensile and shear local damage and reproduces the main features of compressive failure of brittle materials like rocks or ice. We show that the size distribution of damage clusters, as well as the evolution of an order parameter—the size of the largest damage cluster—argue for a critical interpretation of fracture. The compressive failure strength follows a normal distribution with a very small size effect on the mean strength, in good agreement with experiments.

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  • Received 20 December 2011

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.108.225502

© 2012 American Physical Society

Authors & Affiliations

Lucas Girard*

  • Department of Geography, University of Zürich, Winterthurerstrasse 190 CH-8051, Switzerland

Jérôme Weiss

  • Laboratoire de Glaciologie et Géophysique de l’Environnement, CNRS—Université J. Fourier, Grenoble, France, 54 rue Molière, BP 96, F-38402 Saint-Martin d’Hères cedex

David Amitrano

  • Institut des Sciences de la Terre, CNRS—Université J. Fourier, Grenoble, France, Maison des Geosciences, 1381 rue de la Piscine, BP 53, 38041 Grenoble Cedex 9, France

  • *lucas.girard@geo.uzh.ch

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Vol. 108, Iss. 22 — 1 June 2012

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