Artists: Tom Vincent-Dospital, Renaud Toussaint, Alain Cochard, Eirik Grude Flekkøy, Knut Jørgen Måløy

Numerical simulation of a fracture front propagating in an elastic material : a model based on physico-chemitry of molecular rupture coupled to large-scale mechanics. As the fracture propagates, it releases heat and the local temperature rise eases the depinning of the front, that can overcome energy barriers in tough material heterogeneities. The front is 5.5 mm large from left to right. It goes from bottom to top, all successive positions are represented. The color scale indicates the front velocity, in logarithmic scale, from 10 micrometers/s (dark blue) to 100 m/s (yellow).

(c) 2020 University of Oslo and University of Strasbourg