On the path of a quasistatic crack in Mode III

revised version: June 2004
Gerardo Oleaga
(Please use for correspondence this email).

Submission date: 13. May. 2004
Pages: 26
published in: Journal of elasticity, 76 (2004) 2, p. 163-189 
DOI number (of the published article): 10.1007/s10659-005-0297-2
MSC-Numbers: 74
PACS-Numbers: 62.20.Mk
Keywords and phrases: crack propagation, discrete model, linear elasticity
Download preprint: PDF (703 kB), PS ziped (313 kB)

Abstract:
We present an approach to study the path of a crack growing in a quasistatic regime in a brittle body. The propagation process is modelled by a sequence of discrete steps optimizing the elastic energy released. A detailed study of the Mode III case is presented. We obtain an explicit relationship between the optimal growing direction and the parameters defining the local elastic field around the tip. This allows to describe a simple algorithm to compute the crack configuration. A comparison with other models proposed for the same problem is provided as well.