Self-affine cracks in a brittle porous material

Fractal mechanics and probabilistic methods are applied to an ideal porous material (gypsum rock). The behavior of the material fracture is brittle in essence, concluding that the lines of fracture propagation have self-affine invariance, due to the high rugosity of the crack developed within a wide but limited length interval of scale in the cracks. The validity of the mechanic equations of self-affine cracks are verified by a comparison between the predictions of self-affine fracture mechanics and the results of standardized mechanical tests, obtaining the fractal fracture toughness of gypsum rock.