Nucleation to percolation behavior: effect of stress redistribution in fracture processes

Abstract: Crack growth and development are studied in fibre bundle model and random spring ladder. By tuning the range of stress redistribution around a broken fibre or spring, we observe a transition in the development of fracture from the nucleation to percolation behavior. We also observe different avalanche behavior in the two regimes. Our simulation in random spring ladder shows how different fracture modes are obtained by tuning the elastic potential.