ABSTRACT
In this chapter we depart from the aforementioned top-down and bottom up approaches to crack modeling and instead use peridynamics [19] to develop a nonlocal mesoscopic model for assessing the deformation state inside a cracking body. This model is used to connect the dynamics associated with unstable bonds at mesoscopic scales to dynamic free crack propagation inside a brittle material, as observed at macroscopic length scales. This strategy can be thought of as a bottom-up approach. However instead of starting at atomistic scales we pose the dynamics at the mesoscale and scale up to discover the macroscopic ramifications. A future goal would be to inform the mesoscopic model through atomistic or molecular dynamics at still smaller length scales.
