title: Dissipative viscoplastic deformation in dynamic fracture: tip blunting and velocity selection.
abstract: Dynamic fracture in a wide class of materials reveals a "fracture energy" Gamma much larger than the expected nominal surface energy due to the formation of two fresh surfaces. Moreover, the fracture energy depends on the crack velocity, Gamma=Gamma(upsilon). We show that a simple dynamical theory of viscoplasticity coupled to asymptotic pure linear elasticity provides a possible explanation to the above phenomena. The theory predicts tip blunting characterized by a dynamically determined crack tip radius of curvature. In addition, we demonstrate velocity selection for cracks in fixed-grip strip geometry accompanied by the identification of Gamma and its velocity dependence.
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemical Physics, The Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot 76100, Israel.
authors.forename: Eran
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Bouchbinder
authors.forename: Anna
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Pomyalov
authors.forename: Itamar
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Procaccia