Subsampling of avalanches in the fiber bundle models of fracture

Abstract

We study the subsampling of the avalanches in the fiber bundle model of fracture. In cases where only a part of the system is observed for the micro-failure events, the recorded avalanche statistics gets distorted compared to the actual fracture events. We show that, particularly in the cases where the load redistribution is localized, this distortion is significant. Surprisingly, however, near an elastic failure regime, the distortion is minimized, suggesting a much reduced observational capacity could still represent the actual failure dynamics in the case of fracture of elastic solids.