The effect of local inertia around the crack-tip in dynamic fracture of soft materials

Phase-field or gradient-damage approaches offer elegant ways to model cracks. Material stiffness decreases in the cracked region with the evolution of the phase-field or damage variable. This variable and, consequently, the decreased stiffness are spatially diffused, which essentially means the loss of the internal links and the bearing capacity of the material in a finite region. Considering the loss of material stiffness without the loss of...