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Size Effect in Fracture: Roughening of Crack Surfaces and Asymptotic Analysis

S. Morel·E. Bouchaud·G. Valentin
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Abstract

Recently the scaling laws describing the roughness development of fracture surfaces was proposed to be related to the macroscopic elastic energy released during crack propagation [Mor00]. On this basis, an energy-based asymptotic analysis allows to extend the link to the nominal strength of structures. We show that a Family-Vicsek scaling leads to the classical size effect of linear elastic fracture mechanics. On the contrary, in the case of an anomalous scaling, there is a smooth transition from the case of no size effect, for small structure sizes, to a power law size effect which appears weaker than the linear elastic fracture mechanics one, in the case of large sizes. This prediction is confirmed by fracture experiments on wood.

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S. Morel, E. Bouchaud, G. Valentin. 2002-01-04. Size Effect in Fracture: Roughening of Crack Surfaces and Asymptotic Analysis. https://doi.org/10.1103/physrevb.65.104101

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