From Atomistic to Continuum Theory for Brittle Materials: A Two-Dimensional Model Problem
- A two-dimensional atomic mass spring system is investigated for critical fracture loads and its crack path geometry. We rigorously prove that in the discrete-to-continuum limit, the minimal energy leads to a universal cleavage law and energy minimizers are either homogeneous elastic deformations or configurations that are cracked along specific crystallographic hyperplanes. Furthermore, we identify an effective continuum model through Gamma-convergence.
