Transition from damage to fragmentation in collision of solids

TL;DR

This paper studies how solids fracture or fragment upon low-energy impacts, revealing a sharp transition between damage and fragmentation that behaves like a critical point, using a 2D granular solid model.

Contribution

It introduces a dynamical 2D model to analyze impact-induced damage and fragmentation, identifying a critical transition point between the two states.

Findings

Sharp transition between damage and fragmentation states.

Transition point exhibits critical behavior.

Numerical evidence supports the existence of a critical point.

Abstract

We investigate fracture and fragmentation of solids due to impact at low energies using a two-dimensional dynamical model of granular solids. Simulating collisions of two solid discs we show that, depending on the initial energy, the outcome of a collision process can be classified into two states: a damaged and a fragmented state with a sharp transition in between. We give numerical evidence that the transition point between the two states behaves as a critical point, and we discuss the possible mechanism of the transition.