Scale-based correlations of relative areas with fracture of chocolate

Scale-based correlation analyses are applied to the fractography of chocolate. The objective is to show how scale-based analyses can find functional correlations between surface properties and surface textures. This work may also provide some insights into the fracture of chocolate, as distinct scales with strong correlations are found. Chocolate was broken by a strain-rate controlled three-point bending apparatus at various temperatures. The fractured surfaces were measured using a scanning laser microscope. Area-scale analyses, a kind of scale-sensitive fractal analysis, were performed on the measured surfaces, producing relative areas as a function of scale. The correlation between relative area and temperature was computed at each scale and charted. The results of the analyses showed excellent correlation, approaching R2 of 1, between relative area and temperature of fracture at a scale of about 17,000 μm2. The R2 values decrease at higher and lower scales to less than 0.1.