Oscillatory Instability in TwoDimensional Dynamic Fracture.pdfVIP

Oscillatory Instability in Two-Dimensional Dynamic Fracture Eran Bouchbinder and Itamar Procaccia Dept. of Chemical Physics, The Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot 76100 Israel The stability of a rapid dynamic crack in a two dimensional infinite strip is studied in the frame- 6 work of Linear Elasticity Fracture Mechanics supplemented with a modified principle of local sym- 0 metry. It is predicted that a single crack becomes unstable by a finite wavelength oscillatory mode at a velocity v , 0.8c v 0.85c , where c is the Rayleigh wave speed. The relevance of this 0 c R c R R 2 theoretical calculation to the oscillatory instability reported in the companion experimental Letter is discussed. p e S Introduction: High precision experiments on dy- of width 2h under fixed-grip boundary conditions. A co- 0 namic fracture in slabs of amorphous materials re- ordinate system (x, y) is located on the central line of 1 vealed very interesting instabilities in the form of micro- the strip with x being the direction of crack propagation. ] branching. Above a critical velocity of about 0.4cR , The unperturbed crack configuration M0 at any time t is i where cR is the Rayleigh wave speed, a single, straight, described by c s rapidly moving crack is unstable against the appearance - M = {(x , y ) : −∞ x vt, y = 0} . (1) l of small diameter side-branches that affect both the mor-