An asymptotic analysis of dynamic crack growth in rubber

Asymptotic analyses of the mechanical fields in front of stationary and propagating cracks are important for several reasons. For example, they facilitate the understanding of the mechanical and physical state in front of crack tips, and they enable prediction of crack growth. Furthermore, efficient modelling of arbitrary crack growth by use of XFEM (extended finite element method) requires accurate knowledge of the asymptotic crack tip fields. The present study focuses on the asymptotic fields in front of a crack that propagates dynamically in rubber. Static analyses of this type of problem have been made in previous studies. In order to be able to compare the present results with these earlier studies, the constitutive model from Knowles and Sternberg (J. Elast. 3:67–107, 1973) was adopted. It is assumed that viscoelastic stresses become negligible compared with the singular elastic stresses close to the crack tip. The present analysis shows that in materials with a significant hardening, the inertia term in the equations of motion becomes negligible in the asymptotic analysis. However, for a neoHookean type of model, inertia comes into play and causes a maximum theoretical crack speed that equals the shear wave speed.