Experimental Realization of Critical Thermal Fuse Rupture

Abstract

We present an experimental realization with electrical composites of the thermal fuse model [D. Sornette and C. Vanneste, Phys. Rev. Lett. 68, 612 (1992)], proposed as a paradigm of dynamical rupture in heterogeneous media. An isolating polymer matrix is filled with conducting particles, and the particle-particle contacts evolve due to thermal expansion of the matrix as a function of the applied current $I$. Above a critical current, the electric resistance $R$ increases as a power law of time to rupture $R\ensuremath{\sim}({t}_{r}\ensuremath{-}t{)}^{\ensuremath{-}\ensuremath{\alpha}}$, with $\ensuremath{\alpha}\ensuremath{\simeq}0.65$, and the breakdown time ${t}_{r}$ scales as ${t}_{r}\ensuremath{\sim}{I}^{\ensuremath{-}2}$ in agreement with the model.