Numerical study on steady-state cracking of composites

This article presents a numerical study on the steady-state cracking in brittle matrix composites. While steady-state cracking underlies the phenomenon of multiple cracking, an important mechanism to achieve tensile ductility in such materials, it is difficult to capture experimentally. This paper provides a numerical approach to simulate steady-state cracking behavior in reinforced brittle matrix composites. From computational results, the previously derived analytic condition of steady-state cracking is confirmed and steady-state crack propagation can be digitally visualized. (c) 2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.