Author(s)

R.C.H. Cheng & L. Traylor

Abstract

We consider the use of parametric mixture models for modelling the characteristics of brittle materials. Such mixture models are generalizations of well-known Weibull and related models often used in reliability studies. The properties of such mixture models are described. An attractive feature of such models is that they include standard models as a special case, but allow these standard models to be extended in a natural way. It is argued that they therefore offer a more flexible system for capturing the properties of brittle materials and moreover that the parameters characterizing such mixture models have useful interpretations in practice. The fitting of such models is described to

Keywords