Dynamics of Fractures in Quenched Disordered Media

TL;DR

This paper presents a deterministic model for fracture dynamics in quenched disordered media, revealing how memory effects and quenched disorder influence crack propagation and cluster geometry at low temperatures.

Contribution

It introduces a new extremal dynamics model based on a spring network to study fracture processes, emphasizing the role of quenched disorder and memory effects.

Findings

Reduced fractal dimension of fracture clusters

Memory effects enhance screening during crack propagation

Model captures low-temperature crack dynamics in solids

Abstract

We introduce a model for fractures in quenched disordered media. This model has a deterministic extremal dynamics, driven by the energy function of a network of springs (Born Hamiltonian). The breakdown is the result of the cooperation between the external field and the quenched disorder. This model can be considered as describing the low temperature limit for crack propagation in solids. To describe the memory effects in this dynamics, and then to study the resistance properties of the system we realized some numerical simulations of the model. The model exhibits interesting geometric and dynamical properties, with a strong reduction of the fractal dimension of the clusters and of their backbone, with respect to the case in which thermal fluctuations dominate. This result can be explained by a recently introduced theoretical tool as a screening enhancement due to memory effects induced by the quenched disorder.