title: Tearing of thin sheets: cracks interacting through an elastic ridge.
abstract: We study the interaction between two cracks propagating quasistatically during the tearing of a thin brittle sheet. We show that the cracks attract each other following a path described by a power law resulting from the competition between elastic and fracture energies. The power law exponent (8/11) is in close agreement with experiments. We also show that a second (asymptotic) regime, with an exponent of 9/8, emerges for small distances between the two crack tips due to the finite transverse curvature of the elastic ridge joining them.
authors.affiliation: Nonlinear Physical Chemistry Unit, Faculté des Sciences, Université libre de Bruxelles (ULB), CP231, 1050 Brussels, Belgium.
authors.forename: Fabian
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Brau