Crack propagation is tracked here with Digital Image Correlation analysis in the test case of two cracks propagating in opposite directions in polycarbonate, a material with high ductility and a large Fracture Process Zone (FPZ). Depending on the initial distances between the two crack tips, one may observe different complex crack paths with in particular a regime where the two cracks repel eac...

Paris law constants are commonly obtained with a well established procedure based on standard specimens, notched and pre-cracked. Pre-cracking produces through cracks with stable shapes, nearly straight, similar during all propagation. However, in several situations specimens with corner and surface cracks are recommended. In these cases cracks having significant propagation will continuously m...

A crack and its propagation is a challenging multiscale materials phenomenon of broad interest, from nanoscience to exogeology. Particularly in fracture mechanics, periodicities are of high scientific interest. However, a full understanding of this phenomenon across various physical scales is lacking. Here, we demonstrate periodic interlayer-mediated thin film crack propagation and discuss the ...

The effect of preexisting subsurface cracks on the strength of lap splices was investigated. Ten full-scale beams with No. 11 (No. 36) bars and lap splice lengths of 33, 79, and 120 in. (838, 2007, and 3048 mm) were tested. The beams had mitigating features that prevented catastrophic failure upon propagation of the preexisting cracks, such as staggered splices and the presence of some reinforc...

We here report on a detailed experimental study whose goal is to investigate spontaneous crack propagation in bonded and intact materials subjected to quasi-static far-field tensile loading. The cracks nucleate from a tiny circular hole and are triggered by an exploding wire. They subsequently propagate under the action of a constant far-field load. Dynamic photoelasticity in conjunction with h...

In 3-D analyses of rock slopes there’re can be numerous sliding paths a long a coplanar nonpersistent discontinuity with a known strike. This paper describes an approach for the determination of a most probable sliding path. For this particular study, several blocks of gypsum with the dimensions of 15×15×15 cm containing coplanar non-persistent open joints were fabricated. The models have vario...

The El Haddad equation permits to deal simply with both short and long cracks, and we have recently suggested a generalization for finite life, defining a “finite life intrinsic crack size”, as a power law of number of cycles to failure. Here, we derive the corresponding crack propagation law, finding that it shows features similar to Paris’ law in the limit of long cracks, but shows some depen...

When a femtosecond laser pulse is focused inside a LiF single crystal, four cracks are generated in the <100> directions from the photoexcited region. The time-resolved observation have elucidated that the tensile stress in the laser induced stress wave induces the generation and propagation of the cracks. In this study, to investigate the possibility of control of laser induced cracks inside s...

Fracture mechanics is a vital component involved in studying the exact behavior of rock materials. Detection and assessment of the behavior of rock joints injected by grout plays an important role in numerical modelling in rock mechanic projects. The importance of mechanisms associated with initiation and propagation of cracks due to hydraulic fracturing has led to a considerable interest in in...

190 Abstract In this paper, a new analytical method for solving stable crack propagation problems in a ductile panel with a row of cracks, is presented. The main purpose of the present study is to estimate the maximum load carrying capacity of such panels accurately. The so called Elastic Plastic Finite Element Alternating Method (Pyo et al. (1994)) was extended to account for the propagating c...