Looping Network Meetings
#75 December 1, 2025
Monday 15:00 (Paris/Warsaw time)
Hans Herrmann (UFC Fortaleza and ESPCI Paris)
Crack Patterns
Abstract:
I will begin by introducing several fundamental concepts in fracture mechanics, including Griffith’s elastic solution for a straight crack and the characteristic stress field near the crack tip. We will then examine the influence of various types of material disorder. After presenting numerical techniques used to simulate crack propagation, we will explore the phenomena of microcrack formation and crack branching. Next, I will discuss stress corrosion cracking and demonstrate that even deterministic models can accurately reproduce the fractal patterns observed experimentally. Hydraulic fracture provides another example of fractal crack morphology, as illustrated by two-dimensional simulations. After a discussion of drying patterns I will conclude with some thoughts about fragmentation.
Image source: Hans Herrmann
Head image credits (from top left):
(1) Corentin Bisot and Loreto Oyarte Galvez,
(2) Claire Lagesse,
(3) Stéphane Douady,
(4) Stanisław Żukowski,
(5) Przemysław Prusinkiewicz,
(6) Andrea Perna,
(7) John Shaw (Google Earth),
(8) Justin Tauber,
(9) Marc Durand.
Contact: s.zukowski [at] uw.edu.pl