2009/06/30 by Julien Scheibert, Claudia Guerra, Cláudia Guerra +3 · 71 citations
Engineering · Materials Science · Physics and Astronomy · #Brittleness #Composite material #Fracture (geology) #Fracture mechanics #Granular flow and fluidized beds #High-Velocity Impact and Material Behavior #Instability #Materials science #Mechanics #Nucleation #Physics #Rock Mechanics and Modeling #Signature (topology) #Thermodynamics #cond-mat.mtrl-sci #physics.class-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.1103/physrevlett.104.045501
published in Physical Review Letters 104(4), 045501 (American Physical Society) · 5 pages, 4 figures, published version, Article highlighted in Physical Review Focus (February 12th, 2010)
openalex publication_date 2010/01/27 · arxiv created 2010/02/15 · arxiv updated 2010/02/26 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05
Dynamic fracture experiments were performed in polymethylmethacrylate over a wide range of velocities and reveal that the fracture energy exhibits an abrupt threefold increase from its value at crack initiation at a well-defined critical velocity, below the one associated with the onset of microbranching instability. This transition is associated with the appearance of conics patterns on fracture surfaces that, in many materials, are the signature of damage spreading through the nucleation and growth of microcracks. A simple model allows us to relate both the energetic and fractographic measurements. These results suggest that dynamic fracture at low velocities in amorphous materials is controlled by the brittle-quasibrittle transition studied here.