Analysis by Ripley's function of the correlations involved during failure in quasi-brittle materials: Experimental and numerical investigations at the mesoscale

The degradation of quasi-brittle materials encompasses micro-cracks propagation, interaction and coalescence in order to form a macro-crack. These phenomena are located within the Fracture Process Zone (FPZ). This paper aims at providing a further insight in the description of the FPZ evolution with the help of statistical analysis of damage. The statistical analysis relies on the implementation of Ripley's functions, which have been developed in order to exhibit patterns in image analyses. It is shown how a correlation length may be extracted from the Ripley's function analysis. Comparisons between experimental and numerical evolutions of extracted correlation lengths are performed.