Numerical investigations on crack propagation and crack branching in brittle solids under dynamic loading using bond-particle model

In this article, the bond-particle methodology (BPM) is applied to investigate the crack propagation and crack branching, which is belong to dynamic fracture instabilities, in PMMA brittle solids under dynamic loading. The microscopic parameters in BPM are first calibrated using the comparison with the previous experimental results not only in the field of qualitative analysis, but also in the field of quantitative analysis. The calibrating process illustrates that the selected microscopic parameters in BPM are suitable to effectively and accurately simulate dynamic fracture process in PMMA brittle solids subjected to dynamic loads. Then, the typical dynamic fracture behaviors of solids under dynamic loading are reproduced by BPM. Compared with the previous experimental and numerical results, the present numerical results are in good agreement with the existing ones not only in the field of qualitative analysis, but also in the field of quantitative analysis. Finally, the effects of dynamic loading magnitude, offset distance of the initial crack and initial crack length on dynamic fracture behaviors, including dynamic fracture patterns and critical crack propagation speed in brittle solids under dynamic loading are numerically investigated.