Influence of temperature and crack-tip speed on crack propagation in elastic solids

TL;DR

This paper investigates how temperature and crack-tip speed affect crack propagation in elastic solids, especially rubber-like materials, highlighting the importance of thermally activated bond-breaking processes in different crack types.

Contribution

It introduces a theory linking temperature and crack-tip velocity to crack propagation energy, with validation against experimental data for silicone rubber.

Findings

Crack propagation energy increases with decreasing temperature.

Crack propagation energy increases with increasing crack-tip speed.

Theory aligns well with experimental measurements for both adhesive and cohesive cracks.

Abstract

I study the influence of temperature and the crack-tip velocity of the bond breaking at the crack tip in rubber-like materials. The bond breaking is considered as a stress-aided thermally activated process and result in an effective crack propagation energy which increases strongly with decreasing temperature or increasing crack-tip speed. This effect is particular important for adhesive (interfacial) crack propagation but less important for cohesive crack propagation owing to the much larger bond-breaking energies in the latter case. For adhesive cracks the theory results are consistent with adhesion measurements for silicone (PDMS) rubber in contact with silica glass surfaces. For cohesive cracks the theory agree well with experimental results PDMS films chemically bound to silinized glass.