Crack propagation, arrest and statistics in heterogeneous materials

We investigate theoretically statistics and thermally activated dynamics of crack nucleation and propagation in a two-dimensional heterogeneous material containing quenched randomly distributed defects. We consider a crack tip dynamics accounting for dissipation, thermal noise and the random forces arising from the elastic interactions of the crack opening with the defects. The equation of motion is based on the generalized Griffith criterion and the dynamic energy release rate and gives rise to Langevin-type stochastic dynamics in a quenched disordered potential. For different types of quenched random forces, which are characterized (a) by the range of elastic interactions with the crack tip and (b) the range of correlations between defects, we derive a number of static and dynamic quantities characterizing crack propagation in heterogeneous materials both at zero temperature and in the presence of thermal activation. In the absence of thermal fluctuations we obtain the nucleation and propagation probabilities, typical arrest lengths, the distribution of crack lengths and of critical forces. For thermally activated crack propagation we calculate the mean time to fracture. Depending on the range of elastic interactions between crack tip and frozen defects, heterogeneous material exhibits brittle or ductile fracture. We find that aggregations of defects generating long-range interaction forces (e.g. clouds of dislocations) lead to anomalously slow creep of the crack tip or even to its complete arrest. We demonstrate that heterogeneous materials with frozen defects contain a large number of arrested microcracks and that their fracture toughness is enhanced to the experimentally accessible timescales.