Length distribution of secondary cracks in brittle materials

It is shown that the length distribution of secondary cracks in the ‘mist’ zone of brittle materials is a magnified picture of the flaw length distribution. The magnification factor increases exponentially with increasing distance between the initial flaw and the secondary crack. On the basis of this correlation we have developed a new simple technique by which the flaw size distribution of the total flaw population in the material can be established by a single fracture experiment. An indirect check of this result is given by an analysis of a previous ‘roughness’ experiment.