title: Acquisition of inertia by a moving crack.
abstract: We experimentally investigate the dynamics of "simple" tensile cracks. Within an effectively infinite medium, a crack's dynamics perfectly correspond to inertialess behavior predicted by linear elastic fracture mechanics. Once a crack interacts with waves that it generated at earlier times, this description breaks down. Cracks then acquire inertia and sluggishly accelerate. Crack inertia increases with crack speed v and diverges as v approaches its limiting value. We show that these dynamics are in excellent accord with an equation of motion derived in the limit of an infinite strip [M. Marder, Phys. Rev. Lett. 66, 2484 (1991)].
authors.affiliation: Racah Institute of Physics, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem 91904, Israel.
authors.forename: Tamar
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Goldman
authors.forename: Ariel
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Livne
authors.forename: Jay
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Fineberg