Pre-Stressed Weibull Strength

Abstract

Several attempting explanations for discrepency between the empirical strength data and Weibull distribution were proposed by previous researchers. It is conjectured that even if the fibers begin their life with a Weibull strength distribution, that the stresses applied prior to testing results in the survivors of those stresses having a strength distribution which may not be Weibull. It is clear that this pre-stress could not be avoided before the strength testing. The goal of this thesis is to study Weibull strength distributions that have been subjected to pre-stress, and then to examine the resulting strength distribution of the survivors. The strength distribution is derived mathematically and studied. Then a simulation study using MSE and goodness-of-fit test is conducted to study this empirically.