The mechanics and thermodynamics of edge fracture: the critical energy release rate,the compatibility constraint,and the bond potential

Following Gurtin and many others, the critical energy release rate is commonly identified as an ill-defined surface energy. The primary objectives of this paper are to clarify the definition of this surface energy and the role of the entropy inequality in the discussion of critical conditions. In view of an increasing emphasis on ab initio computations, a secondary objective is to show how the critical energy release rate and the compatibility constraint 1 Si, X, Oh, ES and Slattery, JC. 2010. Phil. Mag., 90: 655Taylor & Francis Online] , Google Scholar] can be used to solve a problem for which we have experimental data, using only ab initio estimates of surface tension and bond potential, both of which are increasingly available.