Dynamics of Simple Cracks

Abstract

Cracks are the major vehicle for material failure, and often exhibit rather complex dynamics. The laws that govern their motion have remained an object of constant study for nearly a century. The simplest kind of dynamic crack is a single crack that moves along a straight line. We first briefly review current understanding of this "simple" object. We then critically examine the assumptions of the classic, scale-free, theory of dynamic fracture, and note when it works and how it may fail if certain of these assumptions are relaxed. A number of examples is provided, where the introduction of physical scales into this scale-free theory profoundly affects both a crack's structure and the resulting dynamics.

36 pages, 8 figures, a review paper submitted to "Annual Review of Condensed Matter Physics"

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Cited by in corpus (21)

• The fracture of highly deformable soft materials: A tale of two length scales
• The Dynamics of Rapid Fracture: Instabilities, Nonlinearities and Length Scales
• Instability in dynamic fracture and the failure of the classical theory of cracks
• Crack Front Segmentation and Facet Coarsening in Mixed-Mode Fracture
• Universal Scaling of Polygonal Desiccation Crack Patterns
• Fractographic aspects of crack branching instability using a phase field model
• An intrinsic nonlinear scale governs oscillations in rapid fracture
• Crack front dynamics: the interplay of singular geometry and crack instabilities
• Damage mechanisms in the dynamic fracture of nominally brittle polymers
• Universality and stability phase-diagram of two-dimensional brittle fracture
• Oscillatory and tip-splitting instabilities in 2D dynamic fracture: The roles of intrinsic material length and time scales
• Dynamic stability of crack fronts: Out-of-plane corrugations
• Nonlinear focusing in dynamic crack fronts and the micro-branching transition
• Finite-distance singularities in the tearing of thin sheets
• Tearing of thin sheets: Cracks interacting through an elastic ridge
• Size selection of crack front defects: Multiple fracture-plane interactions and intrinsic lengthscales
• Brittle-Ductile Transitions in a Metallic Glass
• Microbranching in mode-I fracture using large scale simulations of amorphous and perturbed lattice models
• 3D-2D transition in mode-I fracture microbranching in a perturbed hexagonal close-packed lattice
• A steady-state frictional crack in a strip
• Geometric control of failure behavior in perforated sheets