Fractures and crack propagation

The intermittent and self-similar fluctuations displayed by a slow crack during the propagation in a heterogeneous medium can be quantitatively described by an extension of a classical statistical model for fracture. The model yields the correct dynamical and morphological scaling, and allows to demonstrate that the scale invariance originates from the presence of a non-equilibrium, reversible, critical transition which, in the presence of dissipation, gives rise to self-organized critical behaviour.

G Pontuale, F Colaiori, A Petri (2013), Slow crack propagation through a disordered medium: Critical transition and dissipation, EPL 101, 2013.