Scaling of crack propagation in rubber sheets

We have conducted experiments and numerical simulations to investigate supersonic cracks. The experiments are performed at 85 °C to suppress strain-induced crystallites that complicate experiments at lower temperature. Calibration experiments were performed to obtain the parameters needed to compare with a theory including viscous dissipation. We find that both experiments and numerical simulations support supersonic cracks, and we discover a transition from subsonic to supersonic as we plot experimental crack speed curves vs. extension ratio for different sized samples. Both experiments and simulations show two different scaling regimes: the speed of subsonic cracks scales with the elastic energy density while the speed of supersonic cracks scales with the extension ratio. Crack openings have qualitatively different shapes in the two scaling regimes. © Europhysics Letters Association 2011.