Related papers: Universal shapes formed by two interacting cracks
We study experimentally the paths of an assembly of cracks growing in interaction in a heterogeneous two-dimensional elastic brittle material submitted to uniaxial stress. For a given initial crack assembly geometry, we observe two types of…
When cracks form in a thin contracting layer, they sequentially break the layer into smaller and smaller pieces. A rectilinear crack pattern encodes information about the order of crack formation, as later cracks tend to intersect with…
We study the interaction between two cracks propagating quasistatically during the tearing of a thin brittle sheet. We show that the cracks attract each other following a path described by a power law resulting from the competition between…
Polygonal desiccation crack patterns are commonly observed in natural systems. Despite their quotidian nature, it is unclear whether similar crack patterns which span orders of magnitude in length scales share the same underlying physics.…
Cracks in thin layers are influenced by what lies beneath them. From buried craters to crocodile skin, crack patterns are found over an enormous range of length scales. Regardless of absolute size, their substrates can dramatically…
Superficial (two dimensional) crack patterns appear when a thin layer of material elastically attached to a substrate contracts. We study numerically the maturation process undergone by these crack patterns when they are allowed to adapt in…
A continuum model of crack propagation is presented and discussed. We obtain steady state solutions with a self-consistently selected propagation velocity and shape of the crack, provided that elastodynamic and viscoelastic effects are…
The pattern development of multiple cracks in extremely anisotropic solids such as bilayer or multilayer two-dimensional (2D) crystals contains rich physics, which, however, remains largely unexplored. We studied crack interaction across…
Predicting the growth of large cracks in brittle materials is a fundamental unresolved problem in fracture mechanics. Under out-of-plane shear loading, an initially planar crack may fragment into multiple cracks, forming an echelon crack…
Cohesive granular materials, like wet sand, retain their shape before yielding under stress. This solid-like behavior is associated with elasticity. As the loading increases, the material typically flows. However, cohesive materials can…
The propagation of a crack front in disordered materials is jerky and characterized by bursts of activity, called avalanches. These phenomena are the manifestation of an out-of-equilibrium phase transition originated by the disorder. As a…
The two-dimensional oscillatory crack instability, experimentally observed in a class of brittle materials under strongly dynamic conditions, has been recently reproduced by a nonlinear phase-field fracture theory. Here we highlight the…
The problem of predicting the growth of a system of cracks, each crack influencing the growth of the others, arises in multiple fields. We develop an analytical framework toward this aim, which we apply to the `En-Passant' family of crack…
We investigate the geometrical structure of breaking bursts generated during the creep rupture of heterogeneous materials. Based on a fiber bundle model with localized load sharing we show that bursts are compact geometrical objects,…
We examine theoretically and numerically fast propagation of a tensile crack along unidimensional strips with periodically evolving toughness. In such dynamic fracture regimes, crack front waves form and transport front disturbances along…
The interaction of an interfacial crack with small impurities is analysed on the basis of an asymptotic formula derived by the authors. The interaction between the main crack and the defects (e.g. small cracks or inclusions) is described…
We study the appearance and evolution of an array of parallel cracks in a thin slab of material that is directionally dried, and show that the cracks penetrate the material uniformly if the drying front is sufficiently sharp. We also show…
The velocity jump found in the crack propagation for rubbers has been a powerful tool for developing tough rubber materials. Although it is suggested by a theory that the jump could be observed widely for viscoelastic materials, the report…
The breakup of glass and alumina plates due to planar impacts on one of their lateral sides is studied. Particular attention is given to investigating the spatial location of the cracks within the plates. Analysis based on a…
The shape of a crack front propagating through a thin sample is studied using a phase field model. The model is shown to have a well defined sharp interface limit. The crack front is found to be an ellipse with large axis the width of the…