Related papers: Crack front \'echelon instability in mixed mode fr…
The evolution of a crack front under mixed mode loading (I+III) is studied using a phase field model in 3 dimensions with no stress boundary conditions. As previously observed experimentally in gels, there is a relaxation toward a geometry…
Soft fracture in highly deformable solids involves both geometric and constitutive nonlinearities, necessitating advanced theoretical and computational frameworks for its accurate understanding. Tensile fractures subjected to mixed-mode…
In a previous paper (Leblond et al., 2011), we proposed a theoretical interpretation of the experimentally well known instability of coplanar crack propagation in mode I+III. The interpretation relied on a stability analysis based on…
A planar crack generically segments into an array of "daughter cracks" shaped as tilted facets when loaded with both a tensile stress normal to the crack plane (mode I) and a shear stress parallel to the crack front (mode III). We…
We argue that nucleation of brittle cracks in initially flawless soft elastic solids is preceded by a nonlinear elastic instability, which cannot be captured without accounting for geometrical precise description of finite elastic…
In earlier papers (Leblond et.al., 2011, 2019), we presented linear stability analyses of the coplanar propagation of a crack loaded in mixed-mode I+III, based on a "double'' propagation criterion combining Griffith (1920)'s energetic…
We discuss steady state crack growth in the spirit of a free boundary problem. It turns out that mode I and mode III situations are very different from each other: In particular, mode III exhibits a pronounced transition towards unstable…
Material failure is mediated by the propagation of cracks, which in realistic 3D materials typically involve multiple coexisting fracture planes. Multiple fracture-plane interactions create poorly understood out-of-plane crack structures,…
The interaction of crack fronts with asperities is central to the criteria of fracture in heterogeneous materials and for predicting fracture surface formation. It is known how dynamic crack fronts respond to small, 1st-order,…
A phase field model of a crack front propagating in a three dimensional brittle material is used to study the fractographic patterns induced by the branching instability. The numerical results of this model give rise to crack surfaces that…
The paper addresses the problem of a Mode III interfacial crack advancing quasi-statically in a heterogeneous composite material, that is a two-phase material containing elastic inclusions, both soft and stiff, and defects, such as…
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…
Cracks develop various surface patterns as they propagate in three-dimensional (3D) materials. Facet formation in nominally tensile (mode-I) fracture emerge in the slow, non-inertial regime and oftentimes takes the form of surface steps. We…
Cracks, the major vehicle for material failure, tend to accelerate to high velocities in brittle materials. In three-dimensions, cracks generically undergo a micro-branching instability at about 40% of their sonic limiting velocity. Recent…
The propagation of an interfacial crack front through a weak plane of a transparent Plexiglas block has been studied experimentally. A stable crack in mode I was generated by loading the system by an imposed displacement. The local…
This work models brittle fracture using a linearized surface-substrate theory in which the crack faces possess surface stresses derived from a surface strain-gradient elastic energy. The model incorporates surface stretching, curvature, and…
The classical variational phase-field model for brittle fracture effectively predicts the growth of large pre-existing cracks. However, the modeling of crack nucleation continues to be a significant challenge. Crack nucleation under uniform…
The rupture of the interface joining two materials under frictional contact controls their macroscopic sliding. Interface rupture dynamics depend markedly on the mechanical properties of the bulk materials that bound the frictional…
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…
Crack advance from short or long pre-cracks is predicted by the progressive failure of a cohesive zone in a strain gradient, elasto-plastic solid. The presence of strain gradients leads to the existence of an elastic zone at the tip of a…