ISSN 1052-6188, Journal of Machinery Manufacture and Reliability, 2017, Vol. 46, No. 2, pp. 132141.

Allerton Press, Inc., 2017.

Original Russian Text N.A. Makhutov, D.O. Reznikov, 2017, published in Problemy Mashinostroeniya i Nadezhnosti Mashin, 2017, No. 2, pp. 5162.

RELIABILITY, STRENGTH, AND WEAR RESISTANCE

OF MACHINES AND STRUCTURES

Ranges of the Validity of Power Scaling Laws

in the Description of Scale Effects of the Strength
of Extended Elements of Machines and Structures
N. A. Makhutov and D. O. Reznikov*
Mechanical Engineering Research Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences
*e-mail: imashreznikoff@yandex.ru
Received September 14, 2016

AbstractThe ranges of the validity of power laws to describe the scale effect of the strength of
machine parts and structural elements are evaluated based on the probabilistic-statistical approach to
analyzing the scale effect. For small structures, it is necessary to refute the basic assumption of
Weibulls theory on the statistical independence of the values of local strength at various points of
structures and transition to using the mathematical model of random field of local strength, which
makes it possible to take into account the correlation of strength properties of material in closely
spaced points of structure. The derived results underlay the creation of the combined probabilistic
scaling law of strength.

DOI: 10.3103/S1052618817020108

1. INTRODUCTION
During the evaluation of the bearing capacity of machine parts and structural elements, one should
bear in mind the dependence of the mechanical properties on their absolute sizes [13]. Increasing the
thicknesses and diameters of sheets and the causes of forgings that usually decrease the strength charac-
teristics determined on the standard laboratory samples (up to 100 mm2). This phenomenon is called the
scale effect and the dependence of the strength characteristics on the absolute sizes is called the scaling law.
During the transition from standard samples for which the standard mechanical properties are defined to
full-sized machine parts and structural elements, it is necessary to take into account the influence of scale
effect in the case of using deterministic (normative) and probabilistic approaches to ensure strength and
security [46].
One can distinguish three groups of treatments that make it possible to describe the influence of the
absolute sizes of machine parts and structural elements on their mechanical properties from fundamen-
tally different positions.
1. Technological (metallurgical) treatment in which the main attention is focused on the study of the
metallurgical effects that determine the formation of the surface layer, the grain size, and the structural
heterogeneity of materials caused by the features of technological processes of manufacturing the struc-
tural elements (crystallization, rolling, heat treatment) [8, 9].
2. The energy approach to describing the scale effect is based on the main equations and criteria of frac-
ture mechanics, from which it follows that, at the complete geometric similarity of objects with character-
istic size L and the identical nature of loading the elastic energy storages are proportional to volume L3 and
the energy consumed on crack extension is proportional to sectional area L2 [1012]. Comparing the
energy balance equations for two geometric similar objects of small and large sizes, it can be concluded
that, in the second case, fracture will be at lower values of working stresses.
3. According to the probabilistic-statistical treatment of the presence of defects, the scale effect is of a
statistical (probabilistic) nature and is associated with the notion of a dangerous material defect. The
greater the volume of the structural element, the higher the probability of the appearance of a more dan-
gerous defect that results in local fracture. From the point of view of the statistical approach, the average
value of failure stress is determined by the magnitude of local stress at the point of a structural element
where the most dangerous material defect is located. The greater the volume of the element, the higher
the probability that a more dangerous defect will appear, i.e., its strength has a smaller magnitude [13, 14].

132
 RANGES OF THE VALIDITY OF POWER SCALING LAWS 133

b0 S0 F0 b S1' F0 b S2' F0
(a) 1D 0 1D 0
a0 a0 a0
L0 L1 S2'' L2
S0 F0 S1'' F b2 F2
b1 1
b 2D 2D
(b) 0 a1
a0 a2
L0 L1 L0 S2'''
S0 F0 b2 F2
b1 S1''' F1
b0 3D 3D
(c) a1
a0 a2
L0 L1
L2

Fig. 1. Geometrically similar structures L0 < L1 < L2 . (a) One-dimensional scaling, (b) 2D scaling, (c) 3D scaling.

This article investigates the appearance of scale effect from the point of view of a probability-statistical
approach, which, as the Weibull theory shows, corresponds to the power scaling laws ( ~(1/ L)q , where
q is the material constant, L is the characteristic size of structures), which describe the experimental data
fairly precisely [14, 1517] in the area of large structures. However, at low sizes of structures ( L 0 ),
they stop providing physically correct evaluations of strength (C ). From this, the problem of deter-
mining the minimal level of the structural sizes arises, the lower of which is necessary to refuse the use of
the power scaling laws.

2. CONDITION OF IMPLEMENTING POWER SCALING LAWS IN PHYSICS

The power scaling laws are inherent to physical systems that do not have the characteristic scale of
length [4, 15, 16].
As an illustration, let us consider geometrically similar beams shown in Fig. 1a and try to derive the
expression for the system response to influence S (e.g., for the maximum stress or maximum deflection)
as the function of the characteristic structural size L. For this, we choose a structure of size L0 as the base
structure and denote the corresponding system response as Y0. The response is geometrically similar to its
structure of arbitrary characteristic size L and can be expressed as Y = Y 0 f (L/ L0 ), where f (L/ L0 ) is the
dimensionless function of the dimensionless argument, which describes the scaling laws. Then, the
responses of structures with typical sizes of L1 and L2 will be determined by expressions Y1 = Y 0 f (L1 / L0 )
and Y 2 = Y 0 f (L2 / L0 ) . On the other hand, since, in accordance with the assumptions, there is no charac-
teristic scale of the length, then the size L1 one can choose as a base scale. Then expression
Y 2 = Y1 f (L2 / L1) will be right. Therefore, expression f ( L2 / L1 ) f ( L1 / L0 ) = f ( L2 / L0 ) should be satisfied
for any combination of sizes L0, L1, and L2.
Thus, the functional equation relatively unknown scalinf function f was derived. Any possible solution
of this equation should be in the form of the power law
q
f ( L/ L0 ) = ( L/ L0 ) = ( L0 / L ) ,
q
(1)
where q is the constant exponent.
It can be shown that the power scaling laws (1) is inherent to physical systems that do not have the char-
acteristic scale of length [15].
In the framework of mechanics of deformable rigid body, these problems take place in the setting of
mechanics of continua (elasticity theory, plasticity theory) in the analysis of load-bearing elements of
machines, structures made of structurally homogeneous materials or elements with cracks in the setting
of linear fracture mechanics when the prefracture area collapses into the point.
Exponent q is the characteristic of mechanical properties and the deficiency of material and is deter-
mined by the dominant mechanism of deformation and fracture. In the settings of theories of elasticity
and plasticity, exponent q = 0 (defect-free material), i.e., the scaling laws (the dependence of strength on
sizes) takes the form of horizontal line. For structures made of fragile materials that do not contain mac-

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134 MAKHUTOV, REZNIKOV

f(0.2)
1.2
1.0
0.8
0.6 2
10 100 101 103 105
F, mm2

Fig. 2. Change of characteristics of mechanical properties at cross-section sizes F changing. Solid line is the approxima-
tion of experimental data; dotted line is the extrapolation of experimental dependency on the area of small structures.

rocracks, at variation L and F, for different types of construction materials, the exponent varies within
0.01 < q < 0.2 [13]. For the load-bearing elements of quasi-fragile and viscous materials, the scale effect
has more complicated behavior and represents the transition between these power laws [4, 14]. In the set-
ting of linear fracture mechanics, for the case of geometrically similar constructions with geometrically
similar cracks, the exponent of power scaling law is q = 0.5. In double logarithmic coordinates
log C log L , the power law has the form of a straight line with a slope ratio equal to q.
The scale effect for machine parts and structural elements can take place at variations of one, two, or
three linear sizes. In connection with this, there is a need to study the effect of absolute sizes for three cases
as follows:
of one-dimensional scaling (nd = 1) when the element length l varies with constant sectional area F,
which is typical for extended elements of building structures: ropes, cables, jointless rails, pipelines, and
guy lines (Fig. 1a);
of a 2D scaling (nd = 2), when the sectional area F varies at constant element length l, which is typical
of stretched (twisting, flexural) rods of limited length with constant cross sections, including screws, bolts,
and studs (Fig. 1b);
of a 3D scaling (nd = 3), when all three linear sizes change proportionally, which is typical of pres-
surized cylinders, rotors, and turbine blades (Fig. 1c).
The various appearances of the scale effect are peculiar to the listed cases. Figure 2 in the double log-
arithmic coordinates presents a generalization of the experimental data on reducing the strength charac-
teristics of material at increasing the cross-sectional area F of smooth samples and structural elements
made of 22K, 12Kh2MFA, 16GNMA, 27KhNM3A, 08Kh18N10 steels that do not contain the stress
concentrators for a wide range of sizes (case of 2D scaling) [1, 4, 7]. The presented data correspond to the
cases of 3D and 2D scaling and can be described by the power dependences, which were called the power
strength scaling law:
0.2 = ( 0.2 ) s ( F0 / F ) = ( 0.2 ) s f 0.2 (F ),
m0.2
(2)
where 0.2 is conventional yield strength of the samples with different cross-sectional areas F; index s refers
to the basic (standard) sample size; f0.2(F) are the dimensionless functions; m0.2 is an exponent that which,
for low alloyed and austenitic steels, is approximately equal to 0.013 upon change in F by five orders of
magnitude.
Thus, the available experimental data for the samples made from structural steels, the cross-sectional
areas of which vary in the range of F = (3 10 0 )(1 10 5 ) mm 2 , are evidence that, at macroscale level
the power strength scaling law is fulfilled, which in the double logarithmic coordinates, has the form a
sloping straight (Fig. 2, solid line). The derived experimental dependence can be extrapolated to the
domain of mesoscale and microscale sizes (Fig. 2, dashed line).
Next, let us consider the case of the one-dimensional scaling of extended structural elements that
do not contain macroscopic stress concentrators. A distinctive feature of the strength scaling laws
( ~ (1/ L) q is that, at L 0 , the tensile strength is C . This contradicts the physical sense. There-
fore, when reducing the strength scaling laws to a certain scale level of load-bearing structural elements,
we stop to provide a physically correct evaluation of strength. From this, the problem of determining the
minimal level of structural sizes arises, for the lower of which it is necessary to reject the use of the power
scaling laws.

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 RANGES OF THE VALIDITY OF POWER SCALING LAWS 135

i l0 j
S 1 2 N S
x
l

Fig. 3. One-dimensional system with distributed parameters (nd = 1 is a one-dimensional scaling).

3. EFFECT OF ABSOLUTE SIZES AT ONE-DIMENSIONAL SIMULARITY

The nature of the power dependences of strength on the length of kind (1) is justified within the Weibull
statistical theory. For the one-dimensional case under consideration (Fig. 3), the dependence of level of
working stresses, which corresponds to the certain value of probability of failure P* (e.g., 0.5, 102, or
106), on the length of the structural element l.
1/ m
(l ) = 0 (l 0 / l )
ln(1 P* ) ,
1/ m
(3)

where l0 is the base element length and 0, m are the defined experimentally approximation parameters of
left tail of distribution of strength of base element with length l0: P0() = ( / 0 ) . We choose the value l0
m

such that we can evaluate the values 0 and m experimentally.

Introducing Weibull scale function W (l ) = (l 0 / l )
1/ m
expression (3) can be rewritten in the form
1/ m
(l ) = 0W (l ) ln(1 P* ) . (4)

It is necessary to note that shape parameter m = nd / q is the constant of material, which, for different
structural materials, varies in the range of 5 < m < 25 and does not depend on either the size of the struc-
ture l or on the chosen length of base element l0, while the scale parameter 0 depends on l0.
Taking into account (3) the dependence of the mathematical expectation of strength on l can be
derived analytically by integration [13, 20]

(l ) = 0(1 + 1/ m)(l 0 / l )1/ m , (5)

where () is the gamma function.
Derived function (l ) is the power dependency, the graph of which in double logarithmic coordinates
(loglogl) at a fixed probability of fracture is of the form of straight line with slope ratio 1/ m, which
corresponds to m0.2 in expression (2). Thus, according to the scaling law (5), at l 0, we will have
(l ) . Furthermore, the power behavior of the scaling law is due to the fact that there is no the char-
acteristic scale of length in the Weibull model.

4. IMPOSITION OF RESTRICTIONS ON SAMPLE STRENGTH

DURING A REDUCTION IN ITS ABSOLUTE SIZE
As was already noted in Section 2, if the characteristic size of the structure converges to zero
({F , l} 0 ), the power strength scaling law give physically incorrect (infinite) values of strength
({ 0.2, (l )} ).
In order to limit the values of strength of low-sized structures from above, it is necessary to refuse the
base assumptions of Weibull theory about the statistical independency of values of local strength in two
arbitrary points of structure. From a physical point of view, it is logical to assume that the values of local
strength in two closely spaced points of structure are statistically dependent and, at two remote points,
they are statistically independent. A similar situation can be simulated using a random field, in which the
values of local strength in two different points turn out to be related using an autocorrelation function. In
the simplest formulation, the random field of strength can be considered to be a homogeneous and iso-
tropic field. This means that the probability distributions of the values of local strength at various points

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136 MAKHUTOV, REZNIKOV

(x)
1

0 l x

Fig. 4. Autocorrelation function of a random field of local strength.

of structure are identical. A Gaussian function of the kind [21] can be selected as the autocorrelation func-
tion (Fig. 4) as follows:
( x) = exp ( x / l ) ,
2
(6)

where l is the parameter possessing the nonnegative values, which is named based on the length of the
autocorrelation of random fields, and x is the distance between the points of structure under consider-
ation.
The autocorrelation length l is the parameter that determines the distance at which the values of local
strength at two different points of structure are statistically dependent. Value l supposes the material con-
stant, which is concerned with its microstructure (grain size, average distance between defects or inclu-
sions). For the pair of closely spaced points (x ! l ), the autocorrelation function converges to unit
1. For the pair of remote points ( x @ l ), the autocorrelation function converges to zero, i.e.,
0. This means that there is no statistical dependence between the values of the local strength in these
two points. Therefore, for low-size structures (samples), the size of which is significantly less than the
autocorrelation length (l ! l ), the random field of local strength will be described by a single random
variable that is constant by the whole volume of structure. In this case, the values of local strength at all
points can be set using the single random variable (instead multiple of correlated variables of discrete ran-
dom field) [1821].
If, in order to conduct the discretization of distributed system, it is divided it into basic elements of
fairly short length l0 (Fig. 3), in which the values of local strength can be considered constant, then the
continuous random field of local strength of the system can be replaced by a discrete field that represents
a discrete set of correlated random variables, which is described by a correlation matrix, the components
of which are set by the following expressions:
cij ( x ij ) = cov [ x i x j ] = 2 exp ( x ij / l ) , i = 1, 2, ..., N ; j = 1,2, ..., N ,
2

where is the standard deviation of random field ( is the constant because the field is stationary) and
x ij is the distance between elements i and j. The diagonal elements of correlation matrix equal to the dis-
persion of random field. For a stationary field, the diagonal elements of correlation matrix turn out to be
equal to ci j (0) = cii = c jj = 2 exp ( 0/ l ) = 2 .
2

Let us introduce the normalized correlation matrix with elements of the kind as follows:
ij = cij / cii c jj = exp ( x ij / l ) , 0 ij 1.
2

At l ! l , the influence of mechanism of the weak link on structural strength disappears completely.
The structural strength is determined by the strength at one of the points of the structure. At an increase
in the size of structure l, the effect of a weak link is reinforced and gradually begins to prevail over the cor-
relation of strength characteristics at different points of structure, which leads to a decrease in the struc-
tural strength. In the range of large-sized structures (at l / l @ 1) , there is a classic scale effect of the
Weibull type. The numerical calculations presented below are evidence that, already at l / l > 10 , the
power strength scaling law begin to correspond fairly accurately to the available experimental data. In
other words, the influence of the autocorrelation of strength properties for large-sized structures becomes

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 RANGES OF THE VALIDITY OF POWER SCALING LAWS 137

0 1 2 3

c c c
1.5 1.5 1.5

1.0 1.0 1.0

0.5 0.5 0.5

0 0.002 0.006 0.010 0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1.0 0 20 40 60 80 100

btheor x/l x/l x/l

IV
I
II
0

III

l/l 1; 1 l ~ l; 0 < <1 l/l > 10; 0

104d0/l 103 101 100 101 103 l/l

Fig. 5. Dependence of average value of fracture stress on the relative length of structure (expressed through the autocor-
relation length of random field of local strength l ). (I) Asymptote of plastic flow; (II) asymptote of strength scaling law;
(III) curve of scale effect taking into account the spatial correlation of strength properties of basic elements; (IV) shape of
the scaling law in the area of meso-, micro-, and nanoscale structures; 0 is the mathematical expectation of local
strength (macroscale level); bteor is the theoretical tensile strength; d 0 is the grain size.

inessential and the structural strength can be considered using the model of a weak link of the chain of
elements connected in series.
Taking into account the stated above, the structure of the random field of local strength ( x) in ranges
1, 2, and 3 distinguished at Fig. 5 is fundamentally different. This distinction would predetermine the
shape of the strength scaling law at different ratios of structure length l and the autocorrelation length of
the random field l .

The autocorrelation length l of random fields becomes a key parameter of the model. The introduc-
tion of parameter l , which is the characteristic scale of length, violates the condition of fulfilling the
strength scaling laws. The strength of the structure will be determined by the dependence, which is similar
to expression (4), but with the other (not Weibull) scale function. In [20, 21], a smooth interpolation func-
tion of the following kind was proposed:

NW (l ) = (l /(l + l ))
1/ m
. (7)

This choice of the scale functions makes it possible to derive the physically correct asymptotes of the
scaling law as follows: the asymptote at l / l 0 (horizontal line) and the asymptote at l / l (power
scaling law by Eq. (3).

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138 MAKHUTOV, REZNIKOV

2
1.1
1.0
1
0.8

0.6

0.4

0.2
1.0e4 1.0e2 1.0e0 1.0e2 1.0e4
l/l

Fig. 6. Influence of sample length on the strength expressed in the lengths of autocorrelation on the mathematical expec-
tation of strength: circles denote estimated points derived using the model of Gaussian random field and asterisks denote
estimated points derived using the model of the weak link of the chain; (1) combined scaling law formed based on the com-
bination of the model of weak link and the model of the random field of local strength; (2) strength scaling law.

Dependence (7) will make it possible to ensure the smooth transition between the two asymptotes.
Taking into account (7), the strength scaling law takes the form
(l ) = 0 (l /(l + l ))
1/ m
[ ln(1 P )]1/ m or (l ) = 0 NW (l ) [ ln(1 P )]
1/ m
. (8)
Thus, at fairly large values of l (l @ l ), the action of classical statistical (power) law of similarity that cor-
responds to the model of weak link is reestablished, which in the double logarithmic coordinates takes the
form of the straight line with a slope ratio equal to 1/m. At fairly low l(l ! l ), the action of the mecha-
nism of weak link turns out to be compensated for by the fact that, in view of the presence of close to unity
correlation of mechanical properties of material in the neighboring points of structure, the local strength
at various points of structure can be considered to be constant.
Figure 5 (curve III) illustrates the scaling law based on expression (10), which is compared to the power
scaling law (curve II) and the scaling law for the structures made of defect-free materials (line I). Here, the fol-
lowing four ranges of structure sizes are distinguished:
(1) The range of low-sized structures (d 0 < l ! l ), the strength of which is determined by the random
variable of local strength at arbitrary point (here, there is a complete correlation of values of local strength
at various points of the structure ( 1), so the strength is uniquely defined by the strength properties in
the single (arbitrary) point of the structure (which are identical at different points of the structure).
(2) The transition range of structure sizes (l ~ l ), the strength of which is determined by the minimum
value of the local strength at different points (here, the value of the local strength at different points of the
structure are statistically dependent; furthermore, the structural strength is characterized by a random
field with the autocorrelation function 0 < < 1).
(3) The range of large-sized structures (l @ l ), the strength of which is determined by the minimum
among the values of local strength at different points of structure that are statistically independent, equally
distributed random variables ( 0 ). Here, the model of the weak link of chain is applicable and the scale
effect of statistical nature acts.
Ranges 1, 2, and 3 are refer to macroscale level. Besides them, the range 0 is distinguished in figure,
covering the meso-, micro-, and nanosized structures. The probabilistic-statistical (macroscale)
approach to describing the scale effect cannot be used in this range.
The scaling law in range 2 (Fig. 5) can be derived numerically by generation of samples of implemen-
tations of random field of local strength ( x). In the setting under consideration, the random field is con-
sidered to be stationary, the values of the local strength at different points of the structure are believed to
be distributed by the normal law with the mathematical expectation and standard deviation . It is
assumed that the correlation function is a Gaussian function with autocorrelation length l according to
Eq. (6). At sampling increment x , the normalized correlation matrix ij is formed. Then, a sample of

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 RANGES OF THE VALIDITY OF POWER SCALING LAWS 139

implementations of the random process is generated, based on which the distribution of minimums of
random function values for specified ratio l / l is formed. Next, for a specified ratio of l / l , the mathe-
matical expectation of structural strength is defined as the mathematical expectation of minimums of the
derived totality of implementations of the random function ( x). Then, this procedure is repeated at other
values of the ratio l / l .
Numerical analysis using the Gaussian model of the random field revealed that taking into account the
spatial autocorrelation of values of local strength at different points of the structure makes it possible to
limit the value of the strength of small structures from above. Figure 6 presents a numerical example for a
Gaussian model of a random field. As is shown in [15], in the area of medium- and small-sized structures,
the distribution function of local strength is close to the normal law. The values of local strength at each
point of the field represent a random variable distributed according to the normal law, the mathematical
expectation and standard deviation of which is equal to 1 = 1 and 1 = 0.1, respectively; the autocor-
relation length is believed to be equal to l = 1; the sample length varies within 10 4 l 10 4 l . The numer-
ical experiment is evidence that, at l ~ 0.1 l , the magnitude of the average strength value of the sample
reaches the horizontal asymptote and does not increase upon a further decrease in l. On the other hand,
in the case when the length of the sample of magnitude l ~ 10l is exceeded (when the values of correlation
function converge to zero(l ) 0), the model of a random field stops describing the experimentally
observed decrease in the sample strength. Therefore, at l > 10l , it is necessary to use the model of the
weak link of an infinite chain. Thus, the boundaries of the intermediate range of the scaling law, in which
the transition between the two asymptotes is carried out can approximately to specify with the range
0.1l < l < 10l .

The autocorrelation length of random field l plays an important role as the statistical scale of the
length of the material, which defines the transition from the model of local strength specified by the single
random variable (the case of the complete correlation of the values of local strength in small structures) to
the model of the set of independent values of local strength (Weibull model for large structures). The prob-
lem of determining the autocorrelation length of the random field of strength of components and struc-
tures made of different materials with different manufacturing methods requires one to conduct a series
of experiments. However, comparison with the available experimental data (Fig. 2) is evidence that, since
reducing the absolute sizes the power scaling law is fulfilled in samples with cross-sectional area on the
order of up to 1 mm2, then the autocorrelation length of the random field of local strength for the struc-
tural steel under consideration turns out to be no lower than l ~ 1 mm. Thus, the overwhelming number
of machine parts and structural elements refers to the scale range 3 (l > 10l to Fig. 5), in which the power
strength scaling law can be applied.
The combined strength scaling law, which was created in probabilistic approach based on the use of
models of weak link and random field of local strength, does not take into account the structural hetero-
geneity of material at the meso- and microlevels and reflects the processes of the accumulation of damages
and fracture, which only proceed at the macro level. Therefore, following a reduction in the sizes of the
structure up to a level comparable with the grain size d0 (or other parameter characterizing the structure
of material at the meso- or microscale level), the presented probabilistic model stops correctly describing
the scale effect.
Therefore, the horizontal asymptotic form of combined probability strength scaling law (curve III,
Fig. 5), which describes the statistical regularities of fracture of small-sized structures based on defining
equations and criteria of fracture at macroscale level upon reducing the size of the structure l up to a level
comparable with grain size d0 (Fig. 5, range 0) becomes incorrect. In this scale range, other mechanisms
of the accumulation of damages and fracture concerned with the structure of material, which causes
growth in the strength characteristics of structural elements prevail (Fig. 5, curve IV). Furthermore, it is
more correct to speak not about the extremal horizontal asymptotic form of the scaling law at l 0 or
about the intermediate horizontal asymptotic form of scaling law in the range of d 0 < l < 0.1 l. Upon a
further reduction in l, the structural strength can increase up to the value of theoretical tensile strength
bteor .

JOURNAL OF MACHINERY MANUFACTURE AND RELIABILITY Vol. 46 No. 2 2017

140 MAKHUTOV, REZNIKOV

CONCLUSIONS
In the Weibull strength theory, the structure is believed to be equivalent to the chain of links, which is
under the influence of uniaxial stretching. Furthermore, the values of the strength of the individual links
are supposed to be statistically independent, identically distributed random variables. The Weibull model
describes the scale effect for large-sized structures fairly well (l , Fig. 5, range 3), but the assumption
of statistical independence does not make it possible to take into account the spatial correlation between
the values of local strength at different points of structure. The consequence of the assumption about the
statistical independence is that the strength of the infinitesimal sample according to the Weibull model
turns out to be infinitely large.
In order to limit the values of strength of low-sized structures from above, it is necessary to refuse the
base assumption of the Weibull theory of the statistical independence of values of local strength that cor-
respond to two closely spaced points of structure. This situation can be simulated using random field, in
which the values of local strength at two different points turns out to be related by autocorrelation function
with autocorrelation length l . The model of the Gaussian random field makes it possible to derive
the physically correct form of the scaling law for small structures (Fig. 5, range 1) and, in intermediate
range 2 (l ~ l ), ensure the transition from a horizontal asymptote (range 1 at l 0 ) to a sloping asymp-
tote of the power scaling law (range 2 at l ).
For small structures, the spatial distribution of the local strength at different points in the structure can
be simulated by a Gaussian random field. In this case, the distribution of the strength of the structure at
l 0 asymptotically converges to the distribution of local strength in its single (arbitrary) point as follows:
FC () FCi () = const . Furthermore, the probabilistic distributions of the values of local strength at
l
different points of the structure are identical. Because the value of local strength does not depend on the
sample size, the curve of the scale effect at l 0 will have the horizontal an asymptote. On the other
hand, for the large-sized structures the distribution of structural strength F () converges to an extreme
distribution of the minimal values of the local strength at different points in the structure. That is, at
l , the curve of the scale effect corresponds precisely to the asymptote of the Weibull model.
When describing the scaling law on the macroscale level, three ranges of the sizes of parts and struc-
tures can be distinguished. For lengths l < 0.1l , the dependence of structural strength on its sizes is close
to the horizontal asymptote, which corresponds to the value of local strength at one of points of structure.
At l > 10l , the curve of the scaling law is close to the slope line defined by the power scaling law, which
is set by the model of weak link. For the structures in intermediate range 0.1l < l < 10l , the transitional
curve that connects the two asymptotes can be formed using the model of the Gaussian random field.
The formulated in the probabilistic approach, which is based on the use of models of the weak link and
random field of local strength, does not take into account the structural heterogeneity of the material at
the meso- and micro-level and reflects the processes of the accumulation of damage and fracture that only
take place at the macrolevel. Therefore, the horizontal asymptotic form of the combined probabilistic
scaling law of strength, which describes the statistical regularities of the fracture of low-sized structures
based on the defining equations and criteria of fracture at the macroscale level, upon decreasing the size
of structure l up to a level comparable with the grain size d 0 becomes incorrect. Furthermore, it is more
correct to speak of the extremal horizontal asymptotic form of the scaling law at l 0 and the interme-
diate horizontal asymptotic form of the scaling law in the range of d 0 < l < 0.1 l .

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
This work was financially supported by the Russian Science Foundation (grant no. 14 19 00776).

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