PhaseField Model of Mode III Dynamic Fracture.pdfVIP

Phase-Field Model of Mode III Dynamic Fracture 1 2 3 Alain Karma , David A. Kessler , and Herbert Levine 1Department of Physics, Northeastern University, Boston MA 02215 2Department of Physics, Bar-Ilan University, Ramat-Gan, Israel 3Department of Physics, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, CA 92093-0319 (February 1, 2008) 1 0 We introduce a phenomenological continuum model for mode III dynamic fracture that is based 0 on the phase-field methodology used extensively to model interfacial pattern formation. We couple 2 a scalar field, which distinguishes between “broken” and “unbroken” states of the system, to the y displacement field in a way that consistently includes both macroscopic elasticity and a simple a rotationally invariant short scale description of breaking. We report two-dimensional simulations M that yield steady-state crack motion in a strip geometry above the Griffith threshold. 4 1 The nonequilibrium physics of dynamic fracture con- not even qualitatively describe experiments in amorphous ] tinues to be a challenging topic of great interest [1]. Re- systems. What appears to be a more sensible approach t f cent efforts have been spurred by experimental findings for this class of systems is to construct a regularized con- o regarding the breakdown of straight crack propagation tinuum model that maintains rotational symmetry eve