On microcrack dominated problems in dynamics and statics of brittle fracture

The present work deals with different numerical methods based on the boundary element method for the analysis of some phenomena in statics and dynamics of brittle fracture mechanics governed by microcracks. Microcrack formation plays a key role for some phenomena of dynamic crack propagation such as, e. g. why the maximum crack speed hardly reaches more than half of the Rayleigh wave speed, cR, and why running cracks exhibit interesting branching patterns. The main part of this work deals with the further development of a numerical method for the simulation of dynamic crack growth in an unbounded domain accompanied by a number of microcracks. With the increase of the number of microcracks their interaction and their effect on the overall properties of material become important. Therefore, the present work also develops an efficient method for the treatment of elastostatic problems involving many cracks.