DISCREEP

Time-dependent creep rupture and deformation of disordered matter is of tremendous importance in various fields, from civil engineering to geosciences. These processes are characterized by ubiquitous but empirical rheological scaling laws, some of them known for more than a century, which however still wait for a sound theoretical interpretation. Using as a proof-of-concept our recent works interpreting the time-independent failure of brittle disordered matter as a critical transition, we propose to re-interpret creep rupture within a statistical physics, critical framework, in order to: (i) analyze the interplay between disorder, elastic interactions, thermal activation and mechanical vibrations, (ii) explain the aforementioned empirical relations from first principles, (iii) explore the universality of the underlying physics, from tensile fracture to compressive failure of cohesive materials or the yielding of frictional granular media, and (iv) identify precursory phenomena to time-dependent failure that could lead to reliable prediction tools. To tackle these challenges, we will develop a groundbreaking interdisciplinary approach at the crossroads of statistical physics and mechanics, with applications in engineering or geophysics, building a new and extensive experimental database from a set of mechanical setups under various loading configurations and materials, and innovative monitoring tools to track strain, slip, damage, as well as the excitation spectrum (and consequently the energy landscape) throughout time-dependent deformation and rupture. This unique database will be used to develop and constrain a sound theoretical framework of brittle creep and associated phenomena, based on a mapping onto the creep motion of an elastic manifold close to the depinning or yielding threshold. Beyond fracture-related problems, the outcomes will be of upmost interest for our understanding of the statistical physics of thermally-activated disordered systems in general.