Depinning Transition in the Failure of Inhomogeneous Brittle Materials
- Creators
- Ponson, Laurent
Abstract
The dynamics of cracks propagating in elastic inhomogeneous materials is investigated experimentally. The variations of the average crack velocity with the external driving force are measured for a brittle rock and shown to display two distinct regimes: an exponential law characteristic of subcritical propagation at a low driving force and a power law above a critical threshold. This behavior can be explained quantitatively by extending linear elastic fracture mechanics to disordered systems. In this description, the motion of a crack is analogous to the one of an elastic line driven in a random medium, and critical failure occurs when the external force is sufficiently large to depin the crack front from the heterogeneities of the material.
Additional Information
©2009 The American Physical Society. Received 12 July 2008; published 27 July 2009. The author thanks G. C. Cordeiro and A. Bindal for their help in the experiments and M. Alava, K. Bhattacharya, D. Bonamy, E. Bouchaud, J.-B. Leblond, S. Morel, A. Rosso, and R. Toledo for helpful discussions. Financial support from the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs through the Lavoisier Program is acknowledged. 62.20.mm Fracture in solids 46.50.+a Fracture mechanics, fatigue and cracks 68.35.Ct Solid-solid interface structure and roughnessAdditional details
- Eprint ID
- 15085
- Resolver ID
- CaltechAUTHORS:20090817-144810335
- French Ministry of Foreign Affairs
- Created
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2009-09-08Created from EPrint's datestamp field
- Updated
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2021-11-08Created from EPrint's last_modified field