A simple Discrete-Element-Model of Brazilian Test

We present a statistical model which is able to capture some interesting features exhibited in the Brazilian test. The model is based on breakable elements which break when the force experienced by the elements exceed their own load capacity. In this model when an element breaks, the capacity of the neighboring elements are decreased by a certain amount assuming weakening effect around the defected zone. We numerically investigate the stress-strain behavior, the strength of the system, how it scales with the system size and also its fluctuation for both uniformly and weibull distributed breaking threshold of the elements in the system. We find that the strength of the system approaches its asymptotic value $sigma_c=1/6$ and $sigma_c=5/18$ for uniformly and Weibull distributed breaking threshold of the elements respectively. We have also shown the damage profile right at the point when the stress-strain curve reaches at its maximum and then it is compared with our experimental observations.

Fiber Bundle model with Highly Disordered Breaking Thresholds

We present a study of the fiber bundle model using equal load sharing dynamics where the breaking thresholds of the fibers are drawn randomly from a power law distribution of the form $p(b)sim b^{-1}$ in the range $10^{-beta}$ to $10^{beta}$. Tuning the value of $beta$ continuously over a wide range, the critical behavior of the fiber bundle has been studied both analytically as well as numerically. Our results are: (i) The critical load $sigma_c(beta,N)$ for the bundle of size $N$ approaches its asymptotic value $sigma_c(beta)$ as $sigma_c(beta,N) = sigma_c(beta)+AN^{-1/ u(beta)}$ where $sigma_c(beta)$ has been obtained analytically as $sigma_c(beta) = 10^beta/(2beta eln10)$ for $beta geq beta_u = 1/(2ln10)$, and for $beta<beta_u$ the weakest fiber failure leads to the catastrophic breakdown of the entire fiber bundle, similar to brittle materials, leading to $sigma_c(beta) = 10^{-beta}$; (ii) the fraction of broken fibers right before the complete breakdown of the bundle has the form $1-1/(2beta ln10)$; (iii) the distribution $D(Delta)$ of the avalanches of size $Delta$ follows a power law $D(Delta)sim Delta^{-xi}$ with $xi = 5/2$ for $Delta gg Delta_c(beta)$ and $xi = 3/2$ for $Delta ll Delta_c(beta)$, where the crossover avalanche size $Delta_c(beta) = 2/(1-e10^{-2beta})^2$.

Scaling forms for Relaxation Times of the Fiber Bundle model

Using extensive numerical analysis of the Fiber Bundle Model with Equal Load Sharing dynamics we studied the finite-size scaling forms of the relaxation times against the deviations of applied load per fiber from the critical point. Our most crucial result is we have not found any $ln (N)$ dependence of the average relaxation time $langle T(sigma,N) rangle$ in the precritical state. The other results are: (i) The critical load $sigma_c(N)$ for the bundle of size $N$ approaches its asymptotic value $sigma_c(infty)$ as $sigma_c(N) = sigma_c(infty) + AN^{-1/ u}$. (ii) Right at the critical point the average relaxation time $langle T(sigma_c(N),N) rangle$ scales with the bundle size $N$ as: $langle T(sigma_c(N),N) rangle sim N^{eta}$ and this behavior remains valid within a small window of size $|Delta sigma| sim N^{-zeta}$ around the critical point. (iii) When $1/N < |Delta sigma| < 100N^{-zeta}$ the finite-size scaling takes the form: $langle T(sigma,N) rangle / N^{eta} sim {cal G}[{sigma_c(N)-sigma}N^{zeta}]$ so that in the limit of $N to infty$ one has $langle T(sigma) rangle sim (sigma - sigma_c)^{-tau}$. The high precision of our numerical estimates led us to verify that $ u = 3/2$, conjecture that $eta = 1/3$, $zeta = 2/3$ and therefore $tau = 1/2$.