title: Delayed fracture in porous media.
abstract: The fracture of porous media subjected to a constant load is studied. Contrary to homogeneous solids in which fracture usually happens instantaneously at a well-defined breaking strength, the fracture of a porous medium can occur with a delay, allowing us to quantify the average lifetime of the unbroken material. We show that the average fracture probability, a key property for risk analysis in civil engineering, is given by the probability of crack nucleation. The nucleation process can be understood qualitatively by calculating the activation energy for crack nucleation, taking into account the porosity of the medium.
authors.affiliation: Institut Navier, Laboratoire des Matériaux et Structures du Génie Civil, 2 allée Kepler, 77420 Champs sur Marne, France.
authors.forename: Noushine
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Shahidzadeh-Bonn
authors.forename: Philippe
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Vié
authors.forename: Xavier
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Chateau
authors.forename: Jean-Noël
authors.initials: JN
authors.lastname: Roux
authors.forename: Daniel
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Bonn