Related papers: Fracturing of topological Maxwell lattices
We study experimentally the slow growth of a single crack in a fibrous material and observe stepwise growth dynamics. We model the material as a lattice where the crack is pinned by elastic traps and grows due to thermally activated stress…
A salient feature of topological phases are surface states and many of the widely studied physical properties are directly tied to their existence. Although less explored, a variety of topological phases can however similarly be…
The process of frictional rupture, i.e. the failure of frictional systems, abounds in the technological and natural world around us, ranging from squealing car brake pads to earthquakes along geological faults. A general framework for…
Under compressive stress, rock ``damage'' in the form of tensile microcracks is coupled to internal slip on microscopic interfaces, such as preexisting cracks and grain boundaries. In order to characterise the contribution of slip to the…
We present a novel experimental approach based on 3D printing and X-ray computed tomography to characterize fracture aperture distribution and evolution in 3D fracture networks under varying stress loading conditions. We validate our…
The fracture strength distribution of materials is often described in terms of the Weibull law which can be derived by using extreme value statistics if elastic interactions are ignored. Here, we consider explicitly the interplay between…
Integral-type nonlocal damage models describe the fracture process zones by regular strain profiles insensitive to the size of finite elements, which is achieved by incorporating weighted spatial averages of certain state variables into the…
Our goal is to unravel the mechanisms that lead to failure of a ductile two-phase material - that consists of a ductile soft phase and a relatively brittle hard phase. An idealized microstructural model is used to study damage propagation…
Multi-phase materials, such as composite materials, exhibit multiple competing failure mechanisms during the growth of a macroscopic defect. For the simulation of the overall fracture process in such materials, we develop a two-phase spring…
The growth of cracks combines materials science, fracture mechanics, and statistical physics. The importance of fluctuations in the crack velocity is fundamental since it signals that the crack overcomes local barriers such as tough spots…
In this paper we study the diffusely observed occurrence of Fractality and Self-organized Criticality in mechanical systems. We analytically show, based on a prototypical compressed tensegrity structure, that these phenomena can be viewed…
We propose a theoretical model for branching instabilities in 2-dimensional fracture, offering predictions for when crack branching occurs, how multiple cracks develop, and what is the geometry of multiple branches. The model is based on…
Topological defects are increasingly being identified in various biological systems, where their characteristic flow fields and stress patterns are associated with continuous active stress generation by biological entities. Here, using…
The continuum theory of domain structures in ferromagnetic/superconducting bilayers fails when the equilibrium domain size becomes comparable with effective penetration depth $\Lambda$. Instead, a lattice of discrete vortices must be…
Mechanical metamaterials are artificial structures with unusual properties, such as negative Poisson ratio, bistability or tunable vibrational properties, that originate in the geometry of their unit cell. At the heart of such unusual…
Elastomers that can sustain large reversible strain are essential components for stretchable electronics. The stretchability and mechanical robustness of unfilled elastomers can be enhanced by introducing easier-to-break cross-links, e.g.…
Using a minimal model of cells or cohesive cell layers as continuum active elastic media, we examine the effect of substrate thickness and stiffness on traction forces exerted by strongly adhering cells. We obtain a simple expression for…
Material strength is a classical concept with renewed importance in fracture mechanics, particularly in crack nucleation in brittle solids. We formulate material strength in finite elasticity and examine its geometric, constitutive, and…
In this work, we extend the recently proposed adaptive phase field method to model fracture in orthotropic functionally graded materials (FGMs). A recovery type error indicator combined with quadtree decomposition is employed for adaptive…
Advances in manufacturing techniques may now realize virtually any imaginable microstructures, paving the way for architected materials with properties beyond those found in nature. This has lead to a quest for closing gaps in…