Universal Shapes Formed by Two Interacting Cracks

We investigate the origins of the widely observed "en passant" crack pattern, which forms through interactions between two approaching cracks. A rectangular elastic plate is notched on each long side and then subjected to quasistatic uniaxial strain from the short side. The two cracks propagate along approximately straight paths until they pass each other, after which they curve and release a lenticular fragment. We find that, for materials with diverse mechanical properties, the shape of this fragment has an aspect ratio of 2:1, with the length scale set by the initial crack offset s and the time scale set by the ratio of s to the pulling velocity. The cracks have a universal square root shape, which we understand by using a simple geometric model of the crack-crack interaction.