Gori, M;
Rubino, V;
Rosakis, AJ;
Lapusta, N;
(2018)
Pressure shock fronts formed by ultra-fast shear cracks in viscoelastic materials.
nature communications
, 9
, Article 4754. 10.1038/s41467-018-07139-4.
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Abstract
Spontaneously propagating cracks in solids emit both pressure and shear waves. When a shear crack propagates faster than the shear wave speed of the material, the coalescence of the shear wavelets emitted by the near-crack-tip region forms a shock front that significantly concentrates particle motion. Such a shock front should not be possible for pressure waves, because cracks should not be able to exceed the pressure wave speed in isotropic linear-elastic solids. In this study, we present full-field experimental measurements of dynamic shear cracks in viscoelastic polymers that result in the formation of a pressure shock front, in addition to the shear one. The apparent violation of classic theories is explained by the strain-rate-dependent material behavior of polymers, where the crack speed remains below the highest pressure wave speed prevailing locally around the crack tip. These findings have important implications for the physics and dynamics of shear cracks such as earthquakes.
| Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Title: | Pressure shock fronts formed by ultra-fast shear cracks in viscoelastic materials |
| Open access status: | An open access version is available from UCL Discovery |
| DOI: | 10.1038/s41467-018-07139-4 |
| Publisher version: | https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-018-07139-4 |
| Language: | English |
| Additional information: | © The Author(s), 2025. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Licence (CC BY 4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ |
| Keywords: | Applied physics, Mechanical properties, Polymers. |
| UCL classification: | UCL UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS > Faculty of Engineering Science > Dept of Mechanical Engineering |
| URI: | https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10212520 |
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