A general strength distribution function for brittle materials

A new strength distribution function for brittle materials is developed, which applies to materials with an inhomogeneous distribution of flaws. The probability of failure is F=1−exp[−〈Nc,s〉] where 〈Nc,s〉 is the mean number of critical defects in the specimen of size S. The well-known Weibull statistics are a special case of the new statistics for a special flaw size distribution. Several aspects of the relationships between the Weibull...