Steady-state crack growth in rubber-like solids

Abstract

The fracture toughness of rubber-like materials depends on several factors. First there is the surface energy required to create new crack surface at the crack tip. Second, a significant amount of energy is dissipated through viscoelastic processes in the bulk material around the crack tip. Third, if the crack propagates very rapidly, inertia effects will come into play and contribute to the fracture toughness. In the present study, a computational framework for studying high-speed crack growth in rubber-like solids under conditions of steady-state is proposed. Effects of inertia, viscoelasticity and finite strains are included. The main purpose of the study is to study the contribution of viscoelastic dissipation to the total work of fracture required to propagate a crack in a rubber-like solid. The model was fully able to predict experimental results in terms of the local surface energy at the crack tip and the total energy release rate at different crack speeds. In addition, the predicted distributions of stress and dissipation around the propagating crack tip are presented.