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Acoustic emission from paper fracture
L I Salminen1, A I Tolvanen, M J Alava
1Helsinki University of Technology, Laboratory of Physics, P.O. Box 1100, FIN-02015 HUT, Finland.
Physical Review Letters
|October 26, 2002
Summary
Tensile failure experiments reveal acoustic emission energy and waiting times in paper follow power-law distributions across varied strain rates. These findings challenge existing fracture models for disordered media.
Area of Science:
- Materials Science
- Physics
- Mechanical Engineering
Background:
- Paper exhibits complex fracture behavior under tensile stress.
- Understanding acoustic emissions provides insights into material failure mechanisms.
- Existing fracture models for disordered media often assume criticality.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the statistical distributions of acoustic emission energy and waiting times during paper tensile failure.
- To examine the influence of strain rate on these statistical properties.
- To compare experimental results with theoretical fracture models.
Main Methods:
- Performing tensile failure experiments on paper sheets.
- Measuring acoustic emission energy and event waiting times.
- Varying the strain rate over more than two orders of magnitude.
Main Results:
- Acoustic emission energy and waiting times follow power-law distributions.
- The energy exponent (beta) is approximately 1.25+/-0.10, and the waiting time exponent (tau) is approximately 1.0+/-0.1.
- These exponents are largely independent of the applied strain rate.
Conclusions:
- The observed power-law behavior suggests scale-invariant failure processes in paper.
- Experimental results deviate from predictions of critical fracture models for disordered media.
- Residual stresses, often neglected in theories, may explain the discrepancy.