UNIVERSAL LOG-PERIODIC CORRECTION TO RENORMALIZATION-GROUP SCALING FOR RUPTURE STRESS PREDICTION FROM ACOUSTIC EMISSIONS

Based on the idea that the rupture of heterogeneous systems is similar to a critical point, we show how to predict the failure stress with g ood reliability and precision (approximate to 5%) from acoustic emissi on measurements at constant stress rate up to a maximum load 15-20% be low the failure stress. The basis of our approach is to fit the experi mental signals to a mathematical expression deduced from a new scaling theory for rupture in terms of complex fractal exponents. The method is tested successfully on an industrial application, namely high press ure spherical tanks made of various fiber-matrix composites. As a by-p roduct, our results constitute the first observation in a natural cont ext of the universal periodic corrections to scaling in the renormaliz ation-group framework. Our method could be applied usefully to other s imilar predicting problems in the natural sciences (earthquakes, volca nic eruptions, etc.).