Dynamic Initiation and Propagation of Multiple Cracks in Brittle Materials

Brittle materials such as rock and ceramic usually exhibit apparent increases of strength and toughness when subjected to dynamic loading. The reasons for this phenomenon are not yet well understood, although a number of hypotheses have been proposed. Based on dynamic fracture mechanics, the present work offers an alternate insight into the dynamic behaviors of brittle materials. Firstly, a single crack subjected to stress wave excitations is investigated to obtain the dynamic crack-tip stress field and the dynamic stress intensity factor. Second, based on the analysis of dynamic stress intensity factor, the fracture initiation sizes and crack size distribution under different loading rates are obtained, and the power law with the exponent of −2/3 is derived to describe the fracture initiation size. Third, with the help of the energy balance concept, the dynamic increase of material strength is directly derived based on the proposed multiple crack evolving criterion. Finally, the model prediction is compared with the dynamic impact experiments, and the model results agree well with the experimentally measured dynamic increasing factor (DIF).