Scaling of crack surfaces and implications for fracture mechanics

The scaling laws describing the roughness development of crack surfaces are incorporated into the Griffith criterion. We show that, in the case of a F amily-Viesrk scaling, the energy balance leads to a purely elastic brittle behavior. On the contrary, it appears that an anomalous scaling reflects an X-curve behavior associated with a size effect of the critical resistance to crack growth in agreement with the fracture process of heterogeneous bri ttle materials exhibiting a microcracking damage.