Crack velocity jumps engendered by a transformational process zone.

Abstract

We study a concerted propagation of a fast crack with the process zone where a rearrangement of the solid structure takes place. The latter is treated as a second-order local phase transformation. We demonstrate that the propagation of such a zone gives rise to a nonlinear frictionlike force exerted on the crack tip, resisting its propagation. Depending on the temperature, it produces three regimes of crack motion, which differ in the behavior of the crack tip process zone: (i) always existing, (ii) only emerging at a high crack speed, and (iii) flickering. We show that the latter regime exhibits crack velocity jumps.