Analysis of Failure Waves with an Elasto-statistical-brittle Model

Abstract The origin and propagation mechanism of failure waves poses a challenge to our conventional understanding of dynamic failure. In this paper, the failure wave is attributed to the catastrophic rupture in brittle materials and an elasto-statistical-brittle (ESB) model is developed to describe the catastrophic behavior. In the ESB model, the disordered heterogeneity of brittle solids at mesoscopic scale is characterized with statistical description of the shear strength of mesoscopic units. The evolution of microdamage is controlled by the shear strength and the shear stress applied, and eventually induces catastrophic rupture in brittle materials. Considering the failure wave as a propagating boundary of catastrophic failure, the propagation of the failure wave is predicated with wave theory. Several predicted speeds of failure waves are in good agreement with experimental observations.