Slow relaxation of fiber composites, variable range of interaction approach

In the present work a fiber bundle model with slowly relaxing fibers and a continuous range of interaction rule is presented. The elements of the model are linearly elastic until they break, but after breaking they undergo a slow relaxation process, giving rise to time-dependent local load on intact fibers. The load sharing among the fibers is described by a power law as a function of the distance which allows to recover the global and local load sharing approaches as limit cases. Our results demonstrate that the two universality classes of creep rupture are robust with respect to the details of the relaxation mechanisms of the fibers.