Quasi-Static Brittle Fracture in Inhomogeneous Media and Iterated Conformal Maps: Modes I, II and III

Abstract

The method of iterated conformal maps is developed for quasi-static fracture of brittle materials, for all modes of fracture. Previous theory, that was relevant for mode III only, is extended here to mode I and II. The latter require solution of the bi-Laplace rather than the Laplace equation. For all cases we can consider quenched randomness in the brittle material itself, as well as randomness in the succession of fracture events. While mode III calls for the advance (in time) of one analytic function, mode I and II call for the advance of two analytic functions. This fundamental difference creates different stress distribution around the cracks. As a result the geometric characteristics of the cracks differ, putting mode III in a different class compared to modes I and II.

submitted to PRE For a version with qualitatively better figures see: http://www.weizmann.ac.il/chemphys/anders

References in corpus (3)

• Can crack front waves explain the roughness of cracks ?
• Laplacian Growth and Diffusion Limited Aggregation: different universality classes
• Iterated Conformal Dynamics and Laplacian Growth

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• Bi-Laplacian Growth Patterns in Disordered Media
• Statistical Physics of Fracture Surfaces Morphology
• Stress field around arbitrarily shaped cracks in two-dimensional elastic materials