Statistical features of microcracking in inelastic ceramics

A fracture model is considered which is applicable to multiphase brittle materials, ceramics in particular. Within the framework of the model, an attempt has been made to solve a physical problem of describing inelastic behavior of ceramics as stochastic cracking in individual structural elements. We use the model for description of the mechanical properties of single-phase ceramics with a different statistical grain size distribution. With this, an effective medium notion and statistical description of the fracture process have been employed. The calculation results are in excellent agreement with the experimental data obtained by acoustic emission.