On brittle fracture paths

✍ Scribed by B. Cotterell

• Publisher: Springer Netherlands
• Year: 1965
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 504 KB
• Volume: 1-1
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 1573-2673
• DOI: 10.1007/bf00186747

✦ Synopsis

Two classes of fracture are defined: I -fracture path completely predictable, and II -~ fracture path pre-: dictable only after initial random propagation. Class I fractures occur when there is a line of principal stress passing through the tip of the initiating notch or slit across which the stress is a maximum away from the tip. All Class II fractures eventually become Class I.

Although the probability for incremental growth in any one direction is low, it is shown that the line of local symmetry is a highly probable path for macroscopic growth. This condition is equally true for slow or fast fractures and is the explanation of branching at high velocity since with fast fractures two lines of local symmetry pass through the crack tip.