Rupture processes in fiber bundle models

Abstract

Fiber bundles with statistically distributed thresholds for breakdown of individual fibers are interesting models of the static and dynamics of failures in materials under stress. They can be analyzed to an extent that is not possible for more complex materials. During the rupture process in a fiber bundle avalanches, in which several fibers fail simultaneously, occur. We study by analytic and numerical methods the statistics of such avalanches, and the breakdown process for several models of fiber bundles. The models differ primarily in the way the extra stress caused by a fiber failure is redistributed among the surviving fibers.