RT JournalA1 Hemmer, Per C.A1 Hansen, AlexT1 The Distribution of Simultaneous Fiber Failures in Fiber BundlesJF Journal of Applied MechanicsJO Journal of Applied MechanicsYR 1992FD December 1VO 59IS 4SP 909OP 914DO 10.1115/1.2894060UL http://dx.doi.org/10.1115/1.2894060AB A bundle of many parallel fibers, with stochastically distributed thresholds for individual fibers, is loaded until complete failure. Equal load sharing is assumed. During the breakdown process, bursts of several fibers breaking simultaneously at a given load occur. We determine the expected number of such bursts before complete failure, as well as the frequency of bursts in which fibers break simultaneously. This distribution follows asymptotically a universal power-law 5/2 , for any statistical distribution of the individual fiber strengths.