A unified theory for shear fracture is needed to understand why some materials are more resistant to cracks than others.

Tough materials are resistant to the growth of cracks. Why are brittle solids orders of magnitude crack more easily than that of strong ductile solids? Previously there was no detailed theoretical model that could explain this effect. Luca Cimbaro in the Department of Physics has developed a theoretical basis to understand fracture by brittle and ductile shear.

Cimbaro L., Philosophical Magazine 99, 1499 (2019).

https://doi.org/10.1080/14786435.2019.1584413