Current challenges for statistical physics in fracture and plasticity

Statistical physics has been applied in the last decades to several problems in mechanics, including fracture and plasticity. Concept drawn from percolation, fractal geometry, phase-transitions, and interface depinning have been used with varying degrees of success to understand these problems. In this colloquium, I describe recent successes and current challenging problems for statistical physics in fracture and plasticity, focusing on the roughness of cracks, fracture size effects and micron-scale plasticity. Copyright EDP Sciences, SIF, Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2012