Fragmentation of Long Thin Glass Rods

Abstract

Fragment-size and -mass distributions of long, thin glass rods (1500 mm long and 2 mm diameter) are studied experimentally by dropping horizontal glass rods. At lower falling height (about 1 m drop), they can be described by the lognormal distribution. With increasing falling height, the distributions start to exhibit a power-law form. At falling heights greater than about 4.5 m, the power-law form becomes stable with an almost fixed exponent. The distibutions also show clear crossover to three-dimensional fracture of glass rods around the rod diameter.