The fit of fracture strength data of brittle materials $({\mathrm{Si}}_3{\mathrm{N}}_4,$ SiC, and ZnO) to the Weibull and normal distributions is compared in terms of the Akaike information criterion. For ${\mathrm{Si}}_3{\mathrm{N}}_4,$ the Weibull distribution fits the data better than the normal distribution, but for ZnO the result is just the opposite. In the case of SiC, the difference is not large enough to make a clear distinction between the two distributions. There is not sufficient evidence to show that the Weibull distribution is always preferred to other distributions, and the uncritical use of the Weibull distribution for strength data is questioned.

• Received 30 November 2001

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevE.65.067102