Explanation of scaling phenomenon based on fractal fragmentation

A significant ‘size effect' is observed in tensile strength of solid particles, such as ice, rock, ceramics and concrete: the tensile strength is not independent of the fragment size, but decreases with increasing size. The Weibull statistical theory was universally used to calculate the size effect observed in solid particles. Recent developments in fractal theory suggest that fractals may provide a more realistic representation of solid particles. In this paper, the scaling phenomenon of ice mechanics is explained using the fractal model for ice particle fragmentation. The Weibull statistics is modified using the fractal crushing of ice, and is compared with the conventional one. Goodness-of-fit statistics show that the modified Weibull statistics fits the experimental data of ice much better than the conventional one. The modified Weibull statistics has only one parameter, the fractal dimension of the fragment size distribution, which has a general value of 2.50 for the ice fragmentations.