• DOI:10.1103/PhysRevLett.127.035501
• Corpus ID: 235652467

Effective Toughness of Heterogeneous Materials with Rate-Dependent Fracture Energy.

@article{Albertini2021EffectiveTO,
  title={Effective Toughness of Heterogeneous Materials with Rate-Dependent Fracture Energy.},
  author={Gabriele Albertini and Mathias Lebihain and François Hild and Laurent Ponson and David S. Kammer},
  journal={Physical review letters},
  year={2021},
  volume={127 3},
  pages={
          035501
        }
}

• G. Albertini, Mathias Lebihain, +2 authors D. Kammer
• Published 30 March 2020
• Physics
• Physical review letters

We investigate the dynamic fracture of heterogeneous materials experimentally by measuring displacement fields as a rupture propagates through a periodic array of obstacles of controlled fracture energy. Our measurements demonstrate the applicability of the classical equation of motion of cracks at a discontinuity of fracture energy: the crack speed jumps at the entrance and exit of an obstacle, as predicted by the crack-tip energy balance within the brittle fracture framework. The speed jump amplitude is governed by the fracture energy contrast and by the combination of the rate dependency of the fracture energy and the inertia of the medium, which allows the crack to cross a fracture energy discontinuity at a constant energy release rate. This discontinuous dynamics and the rate dependence cause higher effective toughness, which governs the coarse-grained behavior of these cracks.