Thermally activated breakdown in the fiber-bundle model

Guarino et al., (cond-Mat/9908329) have recently introduced a fiber bundle model where fiber fracture can be thermally activated. Under a fixed (subcritical) loading, the mean failure time of the bundle <tau(f)> is studied. An analytical expression for the latter is obtained as a function of the load. The effect of a (narrow) quenched disorder in the fracture stress of the fibers with a Gaussian distribution is shown to lead to an effective temperature simply translated with respect to the actual one. Finally, some "critical" properties of fracture precursors which have been proposed are investigated within the present model.