The problem of the abrupt change of the direction of a crack, propagating with high velocity, is studied in the present work. The study is based on a unified approach of the directional instability phenomena, which accompany running cracks. According to this approach, the running tip is simulated by a prebranched configuration, consisted of two microcracks of arbitrary lengths and orientations. The final macroscopically observed result depends both on these, a priori unknown, relative lengths and orientations of the two microcracks, and also on the stress level and crack velocity.
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