Turcotte, Donald L.Newman, William I.Shcherbakov, Robert2007-08-162007-08-162002-03https://hdl.handle.net/11299/3763The anelastic deformation of solids is often treated using continuum damage mechanics. An alternative approach to the brittle failure of a solid is provided by the discrete fiber-bundle model. Here we show that the continuum damage model can give exactly the same solution for material failure as the fiber-bundle model. We compare both models with laboratory experiments on the time dependent failure of chipboard and fiberglass. The power-law scaling obtained in both models and in the experiments is consistent with the power-law seismic activation observed prior to some earthquakes.