Dynamic crack front deformations in cohesive materials

TL;DR

This paper develops a theoretical framework to understand how crack fronts deform dynamically in heterogeneous cohesive materials, accounting for the process zone size and validating predictions through simulations.

Contribution

It introduces a novel theoretical model that incorporates the finite process zone size to better predict crack front deformations in heterogeneous materials.

Findings

The model captures scale effects in crack front deformations.

Numerical simulations validate the theoretical predictions.

The framework improves understanding of crack dynamics in cohesive materials.

Abstract

Crack fronts deform due to heterogeneities, and inspecting these deformations can reveal local variations of material properties, and help predict out of plane damage. Current models neglect the influence of a finite dissipation length-scale behind the crack tip, called the process zone size. The latter introduces scale effects in the deformation of the crack front, that are mitigated by the dynamics of the crack. We provide a theoretical framework for dynamic crack front deformations in heterogeneous cohesive materials and validate its predictions using numerical simulations.