Local dynamics of a randomly pinned crack front: A numerical study

TL;DR

This paper numerically studies the complex dynamics of crack propagation along a weak plane, revealing scale-dependent behaviors and comparing favorably with experimental observations.

Contribution

It introduces a fiber-based model capturing the competition between damage coalescence and elastic line pinning in crack dynamics.

Findings

Scale-dependent dynamical behaviors identified

Model results align with experimental data

Insights into crack propagation mechanisms

Abstract

We investigate numerically the dynamics of crack propagation along a weak plane using a model consisting of fibers connecting a soft and a hard clamp. This bottom-up model has previously been shown to contain the competition of two crack propagation mechanisms: coalescence of damage with the front on small scales and pinned elastic line motion on large scales. We investigate the dynamical scaling properties of the model, both on small and large scale. The model results compare favorable with experimental results.