Steady-state mode I cracks in a viscoelastic triangular lattice

We construct exact solutions for Mode I steady-state cracks in an ideally brittle viscoelastic triangular lattice model. Our analytic solutions for the infinite lattice are compared to numerical results for finite width systems. The issues we address include the crack velocity versus driving curve as well as the onset of additional bond breaking, signaling the emergence of complex spatio-temporal behavior. Somewhat surprisingly, the critical velocity for this transition becomes a decreasing function of the dissipation for sufficiently large values thereof. Lastly, we briefly discuss the possible relevance of our findings for experiments on mode I crack instabilities. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.