On the acoustic emission due to the fracture of brittle inclusions

The far-field characteristics of the emission from a theoretical model for the fracture of brittle inclusions are presented in detail. The model is a circular crack growing at constant speed from zero size until it attains a prescribed size. The far-field radiation pattern is the same as that of a simple combination of force doublets, and some qualitative similarities between force doublets and acoustic dipoles are noted. The initial shape of the far-field pulses due to the growing stage and the stopping is determined, but difficulties arise in accounting for the diffraction of a surface wave on the crack faces generated by the stopping of the crack.