Paper detail

Thermodynamics of fiber bundles

A recent theory that determines the properties of disordered solids as the solid accumulates damage is applied to the special case of fiber bundles with global load sharing and is shown to be exact in this case. The theory postulates that the probability of observing a given emergent damage state is obtained by maximizing the emergent entropy as defined by Shannon subject to energetic constraints. This theory yields the known exact results for the fiber-bundle model with global load sharing and holds for any quenched-disorder distribution. It further defines how the entropy evolves as a function of stress, and shows definitively how the concepts of temperature and entropy emerge in a problem where all statistics derive from the initial quenched disorder. A previously unnoticed phase transition is shown to exist as the entropy goes through a maximum. In general, this entropy-maximum transition occurs at a different point in strain history than the stress-maximum transition with the precise location depending entirely on the quenched-disorder distribution.