Dynamic instabilities of fracture under biaxial strain using a phase field model

A phase-field model of the propagation of fracture under plane strain was analyzed. It was shown that the model, based on simple physical considerations, is able to accurately reproduce the different behavior of cracks. The model was tested against experimental findings showing the presence of oscillating cracks under biaxial strain. The results show that model reproduces well observed supercritical Hopf bifurcation and is therefore the first simulation which does so.