Year: 2024
Type: article
Abstract: When porous materials are subjected to compressive loads, localized failure chains, commonly termed anticracks, can occur and cause large-scale structural failure. Similar to tensile and shear cracks, the resistance to anticrack growth is governed by fracture toughness. Yet, nothing is known about the mixed-mode fracture toughness for highly porous materials subjected to shear and compression. We present fracture mechanical field experiments tailored for weak layers in a natural snowpack. Using a mechanical model for interpretation, we calculate the fracture toughness for anticrack growth for the full range of mode interactions, from pure shear to pure collapse. The measurements show that fracture toughness values are significantly larger in shear than in collapse, and suggest a power-law interaction between the anticrack propagation modes. Our results offer insights into the fracture characteristics of anticracks in highly porous materials and provide important benchmarks for computational modeling.
Source: Nature Communications
Language: English
Subfield: Mechanics of Materials
Field: Engineering
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: gold
Estimated APC paid: $6,790
Awards: Dynamic crack propagation in dry snow: from crack formation to predicting slab avalanche size, Das fehlende Glied: Quantifizierung der Rolle der Mikrostruktur zur Verbesserung der mechanischen Modellierung schwacher Schneeschichten, The missing link: quantifying the role of microstructure to improve mechanical modeling of weak snow layers, G993971353
OpenAlex ID: W4402135878