Impact fragmentation of an ideal brittle crystal

A deterministic model of fragmentation of a brittle crystal is presented. In the modeling, dynamics of a viscoelastic material is taken into account, though inhomogeneity in material and interactions between fragments are totally neglected to reduce computational costs. By numerical simulations for impulsive loadings, we analyze the processes during fragmentation, and find that a power-law mass distribution of fragments emerges insensitively to material specific parameters. Assuming a finite-size scaling form of the mass distribution function, we present an expression for the exponent of mass distribution, which gives agreement with numerical results and experimental data.