Microbranching
Microbranching is a fracture phenomenon in which a propagating crack emits small secondary cracks, or microbranches, from the advancing crack front. This creates a branched, often intricate fracture path and increases the roughness of the fracture surface. The term is commonly used in the study of dynamic fracture in brittle solids subjected to rapid loading.
Mechanism and characteristics: At high crack velocities, the stress field near the crack tip becomes unstable
Observations and materials: Microbranching has been reported in a range of brittle and quasi-brittle materials, including
Modeling and implications: The phenomenon is studied with dynamic fracture models, phase-field approaches, finite-element simulations, and