2014/12/26 by Cyprien Wolff, Nicolas Richart, Jean‐François Molinari · 73 citations
Chemistry · Engineering · #Branching (polymer chemistry) #Brittleness #Chemistry #Composite Material Mechanics #Composite material #Damage mechanics #Engineering #Finite element method #Fracture mechanics #Materials science #Mechanics #Numerical methods in engineering #Physics #Robustness (evolution) #Rock Mechanics and Modeling #Structural engineering
paper · open access · doi:10.1002/nme.4837
published in International Journal for Numerical Methods in Engineering 101(12), 933-949 (Wiley)
openalex publication_date 2014/12/26 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/26
Summary Dynamic crack‐branching instabilities in a brittle material are studied numerically by using a non‐local damage model. PMMA is taken as our model brittle material. The simulated crack patterns, crack velocities, and dissipated energies compare favorably with experimental data gathered from the literature, as long as the critical strain for damage initiation as well as the parameters for a rate‐dependent damage law are carefully selected. Nonetheless, the transition from a straight crack propagation to the emergence of crack branches is very sensitive to the damage initiation threshold. The transition regime is thus a particularly interesting challenge for numerical approaches. We advocate using the present numerical study as a benchmark to test the robustness of alternative non‐local numerical approaches. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.