Can we predict the failure point of a loaded composite material?

TL;DR

This paper investigates the predictive indicators of failure in composite materials using the fiber bundle model, analyzing burst statistics, susceptibility, and energy emission patterns to identify signs of imminent failure.

Contribution

It introduces a detailed analysis of failure precursors in fiber bundle models, highlighting divergence behaviors and characteristic energy emission patterns near failure points.

Findings

Burst size diverges near failure

Susceptibility and relaxation time diverge at critical load

Energy emission patterns differ below and above critical load

Abstract

As a model of composite material, the fiber bundle model has been chosen -where a bundle of fibers is subjected to external load and fibers have distributed thresholds. For different loading conditions, such a system shows few precursors which indicate that the complete failure is imminent. When external load is increased quasi-statically - \textit{bursts} (number of failing fibers) of different sizes are produced. The burst statistics shows a robust crossover behavior near the failure point, around which the average burst size seems to diverge. If the load is increased by discrete steps, susceptibility and relaxation time diverge as failure point is approached. When the bundle is overloaded (external load is more than critical load) the rate of breaking shows a minimum at half way to the collapse point. The pattern and statistics of energy emission bursts show characteristic difference for below-critical and over-critical load levels.