title: Theory of fracture formation in a heterogeneous fibrillar membrane.
abstract: We present a statistical model of fracture in hierarchical structured heterogeneous materials. We describe the material as a network of fibre bundles. The time to fracture is analytically derived as a function of the bundle size and the local stress. This provides a straightforward criterium for material selection. The original framework here proposed proves versatile: it can be adapted to various practical specific cases upon tuning of its parameters which corresponds to experimentally measurable quantities.
authors.affiliation: Simon Fraser University, 8888 University Dr, Burnaby, BC V6G 2R1, Canada.
authors.forename: P-É A
authors.initials: PÉ
authors.lastname: Melchy
authors.forename: M H
authors.initials: MH
authors.lastname: Eikerling