Nucleation, Creep, and Dynamic Tensile Fracture Are Described by Extended LEFM.

Authors

Yuval Paz, Meng Wang, Mokhtar Adda-Bedia, Jay Fineberg

Published in

Physical review letters. Volume 137. Issue 10. Pages 106102. Sep 04, 2026.

Abstract

We experimentally validate a new description of brittle tensile fracture that extends linear elastic fracture mechanics (LEFM) to account for the 2D geometry of propagating cracks in plates of finite thickness, W. We show that cracks nucleate below the Griffith length at a critical stress threshold. They then creep (at constant velocities orders of magnitude below the Rayleigh wave speed) until expanding to W. Only then do cracks undergo dynamic 1D fracture. The new theory quantitatively describes all of these dynamics. These results have important ramifications to all aspects of material failure.

PMID:
42758995
Bibliographic data and abstract were imported from PubMed on 19 Sep 2026.

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