Transient effects during rapid crack propagation

An analysis is described for rapid crack propagation in an axially loaded strip and for a driven wedge. Each has a dynamic steady state, but this is usually not achieved because the initial boundary conditions of crack length and speed are violated. It is shown that the induced transient behaviour may be described using a perturbation analysis. In the strip case there is a nonlinear oscillating solution, while for the wedge a damped harmonic motion results. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.