FORMA
Forma, Vol. 9 (No. 2), pp. 125-138, 1994
Original Paper

Comparison of Two Kinds of Fractals in Fracture Phenomena

Hisataka Tano

Dept. of civil Engineering, College of Engineering, Nihon University, Koriyama, Fukushima 963, Japan

(Received May 17, 1993; Accepted December 10, 1993)

Keywords: Fractal, Cleavage Fracture, Crack, Uniaxial Compression, Simulation

Abstract. The aim of this study is to compare two kinds of fractals observed on fractured brittle materials. It is well-known that cracks dominantly occur in the axial cleavage fracture of rock-like materials under uniaxial compression. In these materials, there are many cracks on the cross-sectional cut perpendicular to the specimen axis after unloading. We can calculate two types of fractal dimensions using such crack data; the fractal dimension of the shape distribution of fragments divided by cracks and the fractal dimension of the orientation and distribution of cracks. Comparison between experimental and simulation results suggests that the fractal dimension of the shape distribution is more closely related to the stress-strain relation in progressive cleavage fracture than the fractal dimension of the crack distribution is.