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First-Order Transition in the Breakdown of Disordered Media

Stefano Zapperi·Purusattam Ray·H. Eugene Stanley·Alessandro Vespignani
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Abstract

We study the approach to global breakdown in disordered media driven by increasing external forces. We first analyze the problem by mean-field theory, showing that the failure process can be described as a first-order phase transition, similarly to the case of thermally activated fracture in homogeneous media. Then we quantitatively confirm the predictions of the mean-field theory using numerical simulations of discrete models. Widely distributed avalanches and the corresponding mean-field scaling are explained by the long-range nature of elastic interactions. We discuss the analogy of our results to driven disordered first-order transitions and spinodal nucleation in magnetic systems.

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Stefano Zapperi, Purusattam Ray, H. Eugene Stanley, Alessandro Vespignani. 1996-12-10. First-Order Transition in the Breakdown of Disordered Media. https://doi.org/10.1103/physrevlett.78.1408

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