Statistical size scaling of breakage strength of irregularly-shaped particles

The microdefects in a material responsible for fracture initiation in particle breakage may not always have a uniform spatial distribution. This work applies the power-law spatial flaw distribution based weakest link formulation of cumulative failure probability for statistical size scaling of breakage strength of irregularly-shaped particles. Four sets of published breakage strength data of different sized grains made of different materials including rock, basalt, sugar, and potash are adopted to validate the power-law spatial flaw distribution based weakest link model. Since the power-law spatial flaw distribution based weakest link model encompasses the uniform spatial flaw distribution based weakest link model as its subordinate member, while the Weibull statistical strength theory is a special case of the uniform spatial flaw distribution based weakest link model, this work extends the capability to investigate size scaling of particle breakage strength. © 2019