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Cracking of human teeth: An avalanche and acoustic emission study.

Accepted version
Peer-reviewed

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Type

Article

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Authors

Wang, Lei 
Cao, Shutian 
Jiang, Xiang 
Salje, Ekhard KH 

Abstract

Teeth are the hardest part of the human body. Cracking of human teeth under compression progresses by avalanches emitting acoustic noise. Acoustic emission (AE) spectroscopy reveals that tooth avalanches are statistically fully compatible with predictions of mean field (MF) theory. Avalanche energies collapse into a power law distributed which is stable over more than five decades with an energy exponent ε = 1.4. Acoustic amplitudes (exponent ~τ), durations (~α), correlations between amplitudes and energies (~x), and correlations between amplitude and duration (~χ) follow equally power laws with MF values of all exponents. The exponents correlation: τ-1 = x(ε-1) = (α-1)/χ is confirmed. Crack propagation bifurcates and shows the hallmarks of avalanches where main cracks nucleate secondary cracks.

Description

Keywords

Acoustic emission, Cracking, Human teeth, Mean field theory, Power law, Acoustics, Avalanches, Humans, Physical Phenomena

Journal Title

J Mech Behav Biomed Mater

Conference Name

Journal ISSN

1751-6161
1878-0180

Volume Title

122

Publisher

Elsevier BV

Rights

All rights reserved
Sponsorship
Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EP/P024904/1)
European Commission Horizon 2020 (H2020) Marie Sk?odowska-Curie actions (861153)