Crack branching: A “twin-crack” model based on macroscopic energy fracture criteria

✍ Scribed by P.S. Theocaris; N.P. Andrianopoulos; S.K. Kourkoulis

• Publisher: Elsevier Science
• Year: 1989
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 1007 KB
• Volume: 34
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0013-7944
• DOI: 10.1016/0013-7944(89)90271-3

✦ Synopsis

Abatraet-An improved approach for the prediction of the branching angle of running cracks is presented. It is based on the assumption that from the early steps of propagation, ahead of the running main crack-tip a tuft of microcracks is formed, from which two symmetric microcracks prevail over the others at the final steps before macroscopic branching. Further expansion of these two microcracks, which can be predicted by existing macroscopic fracture criteria, rest&s in macroscopic branching. The unknown initial orientation of the two dominant microcracks represents the stochastic part of the whole branching phenomenon, while the main crack geometry, velocity and external load refer to the deterministic part. The results obtained by applying the T-criterion for the expected branching angle show a satisfactory agreement with existing experimental data.

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