Fracture and second-order phase transitions

Using the global fiber bundle model as a tractable scheme of progressive fracture in heterogeneous materials, we define the branching ratio in avalanches as a suitable order parameter to clarify the order of the phase transition occurring at the collapse of the system. The model is analyzed using a...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Physical review letters 2000-10, Vol.85 (14), p.2865-2868
Main Authors: Moreno, Y, Gomez, J B, Pacheco, A F
Format: Article
Language:English
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Summary:Using the global fiber bundle model as a tractable scheme of progressive fracture in heterogeneous materials, we define the branching ratio in avalanches as a suitable order parameter to clarify the order of the phase transition occurring at the collapse of the system. The model is analyzed using a probabilistic approach suited to smooth fluctuations. The branching ratio shows a behavior analogous to the magnetization in known magnetic systems with second-order phase transitions. We obtain a universal critical exponent beta approximately = 0.5 independent of the probability distribution used to assign the strengths of individual fibers.
ISSN:0031-9007
1079-7114
DOI:10.1103/PhysRevLett.85.2865