Fracture of disordered solids in compression as a critical phenomenon. II. Model Hamiltonian for a population of interacting cracks

Abstract

To obtain the probability distribution of two-dimensional crack patterns in mesoscopic regions of a disordered solid, the formalism of Paper I requires that a functional form associating the crack patterns (or states) to their formation energy be developed. The crack states are here defined by an order parameter field representing both the presence and orientation of cracks at each site on a discrete square network. The associated Hamiltonian represents the total work required to lead an uncracked mesovolume into that state as averaged over the initial quenched disorder. The effect of cracks is to create mesovolumes having internal heterogeneity in their elastic moduli. To model the Hamiltonian, the effective elastic moduli corresponding to a given crack distribution are determined that includes crack-to-crack interactions. The interaction terms are entirely responsible for the localization transition analyzed in Paper III. The crack-opening energies are related to these effective moduli via Griffith’s criterion as established in Paper I. © 2002 The American Physical Society.