Branchement d'une fissure initialement fermée en présence de frottement

Abstract

We study crack kinking in the situation where the crack is initially closed by compression forces but opens up as a result of kinking. This problem was considered very recently by the authors in the case where contact between the crack lips occurred without friction. The study is extended here to the (obviously more physically realistic) case where friction is present and obeys Coulomb 's law. We consider in particular the problem of configurational stability of the propagation path, as governed by the applied load. It is found that introduction of friction does not qualitatively modify the conclusions drawn in the frictionless case.