Modeling Acoustic Emission in Microfracturing Phenomena

Abstract

It has been recently observed that synthetic materials subjected to an external elastic stress give rise to scaling phenomena in the acoustic emission signal. Motivated by this experimental finding we develop a mesoscopic model in order to clarify the nature of this phenomenon. We model the synthetic material by an array of resistors with random failure thresholds. The failure of a resistor produces an decrease in the conductivity and a redistribution of the disorder. By increasing the applied voltage the system organizes itself in a stationary state. The acoustic emission signal is associated with the failure events. We find scaling behavior in the amplitude of these events and in the times between different events. The model allows us to study the geometrical and topological properties of the micro-fracturing process that drives the system to the self-organized stationary state.