A comparison of crack propagation theories in viscoelastic materials

Michele Ciavarella*, G. Cricri, R. McMeeking

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

14 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Crack propagation in viscoelastic materials cannot be understood with the use of classical fracture mechanics, which predicts no dependence on the speed of propagation, unless cohesive models like Barenblatt or Dugdale are introduced, as done by Knauss & Schapery first in the 1970s. However, there is another approach, suggested qualitatively by de Gennes in 1996, and quantitatively by Persson and Brener in 2005, which attempts an energy (power) balance by considering viscoelastic dissipation in the bulk of the material. Here, we revisit the main results of the two theories and show that they lead to approximately the same scaling laws not just for the standard material, but also for power law materials (which have a continuous spectrum of relaxation times). Recent findings by Schapery have concluded that the shape of the cohesive law results essentially in a shift in velocity which depends both on cohesive law shape and viscoelastic properties. Therefore, the Persson-Brener cutoff radius in the integral of dissipation can be chosen to fit approximately the cohesive model results to match the shift of the reference velocity.

Original languageEnglish
Article number103113
Number of pages6
JournalTheoretical and Applied Fracture Mechanics
Volume116
Early online date29 Sept 2021
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 1 Dec 2021

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
MC acknowledges support from the Italian Ministry of Education, University and Research (MIUR) under the program “Departments of Excellence” (L.232/2016). RM was supported by the MRSEC program of the U.S. National Science Program through Grant No. DMR-1720256 (IRG3).

Keywords

  • Cohesive models
  • Crack propagation
  • Energy balance
  • Viscoelasticity

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