Brittle Fracture of Plates in Tension: Virgin Waves and Boundary Reflections

Virgin waves emitted during tensile fracture of edge-notched brittle plates have been measured at points on and away from the crack path. The results are in excellent agreement with the analysis of Freund. Boundary reflections were also determined. Both the rear and the front edge reflections are small but not negligibly small; the former are tensile, the latter compressive. Unloading waves are propagated behind the crack tip, and are small compared to the loading waves, which are propagated ahead of the tip. The front edge reflections were also examined near the edge; these are compressive and large. Finally, for an embedded crack, the field scattered by the stationary crack tip was found to be negligibly small.

Brittle Fracture of Plates in Tension: Virgin Waves and Boundary Reflections Academic Article