Cs. Lu et al., NUMERICAL-SIMULATION OF EVOLUTION-INDUCED CATASTROPHE, Science in China. Series A, Mathematics, Physics, Astronomy & Technological Sciences, 38(4), 1995, pp. 462-471
A numerical simulation of damage evolution in a two-dimensional system
of micocracks is presented. It reveals that the failure is induced by
a cascade of coalescences of microcracks, and the fracture surface ap
pears fractal. A model of evolution-induced catastrophe is introduced.
The fractal dimension is found to be a function of evolution rule onl
y. This result could qualitatively explain the correlation of fractal
dimension and fracture toughness discovered in experiments.