Scaling laws of creep rupture of fiber bundles

TL;DR

This paper investigates the creep rupture behavior of fiber composites using novel fiber bundle models, revealing universal power laws and size-dependent lifetimes near critical loads.

Contribution

Introduces two new fiber bundle models for creep rupture, analyzing universal scaling laws and size effects near critical loads.

Findings

Deformation increases monotonically above critical load leading to failure.

Below critical load, the system experiences partial failure with infinite lifetime.

Universal power laws characterize behavior near critical points.

Abstract

We study the creep rupture of fiber composites in the framework of fiber bundle models. Two novel fiber bundle models are introduced based on different microscopic mechanisms responsible for the macroscopic creep behavior. Analytical and numerical calculations show that above a critical load the deformation of the creeping system monotonically increases in time resulting in global failure at a finite time $t_f$, while below the critical load the system suffers only partial failure and the deformation tends to a constant value giving rise to an infinite lifetime. It is found that approaching the critical load from below and above the creeping system is characterized by universal power laws when the fibers have long range interaction. The lifetime of the composite above the critical point has a universal dependence on the system size.