Physical significance of the curvature varifold-based description of crack nucleation

TL;DR

This paper explores the physical foundations and implications of a variational measure-based approach to crack nucleation in elastic-brittle solids, providing insights into its theoretical basis and potential future directions.

Contribution

It clarifies the physical significance of a measure-theoretic variational framework for crack nucleation, expanding understanding of its foundational principles.

Findings

Provides a detailed explanation of the physical basis of the measure-based crack nucleation model

Discusses potential developments and alternative settings for the theory

Offers an expository overview of the variational approach in fracture mechanics

Abstract

The nucleation and/or growth of cracks in elastic-brittle solids has been recently described in [14] in terms of a special class of measures and with a variational technique requiring the minimization of a certain energy over classes of bodies. Here, the physical foundations of the theory and the basic ideas leading to it are described and commented further on. A view on certain possible developments and shifts toward different settings is also given. This article has expository character.