Analysis of Brittle Fracture Stress Statistics

Abstract

Methods for determining the parameters of the Weibull distribution function from the results of brittle fracture tests are considered. Linearization, direct (least‐squares) curve fitting, and maximum likelihood techniques are applied to a set of data for the fracture of glass specimens in cross‐bending and the results compared. It is suggested that the maximum likelihood method is to be preferred since it is completely objective and involves no arbitrary assumptions. However, none of the methods yields reliable results for functions involving three parameters for small sets of data.