Experimental Realization of Critical Thermal Fuse Rupture

Laurent Lamaignère; François Carmona; Didier Sornette

doi:10.1103/PhysRevLett.77.2738

Experimental Realization of Critical Thermal Fuse Rupture

Laurent Lamaignère, François Carmona, and Didier Sornette

Phys. Rev. Lett. 77, 2738 – Published 23 September 1996

Abstract

We present an experimental realization with electrical composites of the thermal fuse model [D. Sornette and C. Vanneste, Phys. Rev. Lett. 68, 612 (1992)], proposed as a paradigm of dynamical rupture in heterogeneous media. An isolating polymer matrix is filled with conducting particles, and the particle-particle contacts evolve due to thermal expansion of the matrix as a function of the applied current $I$ . Above a critical current, the electric resistance $R$ increases as a power law of time to rupture $R \sim (t_{r} - t)^{- α}$ , with $α ≃ 0.65$ , and the breakdown time $t_{r}$ scales as $t_{r} \sim I^{- 2}$ in agreement with the model.

Received 19 April 1996

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.77.2738

Authors & Affiliations

Laurent Lamaignère¹, François Carmona¹, and Didier Sornette^2,3

¹Centre de Recherche Paul Pascal, Avenue A. Schweitzer, 33600 Pessac, France
²Laboratoire de Physique de la Matière Condensée, Université de Nice-Sophia Antipolis, Parc Valrose, B.P. 71 06108 Nice Cedex 2, France
³Institute of Geophysics and Planetary Physics and Department of Earth & Space Sciences, University of California, Los Angeles, California 90095