Fracture under body forces: An accessible test and analysis
Abstract
Fracture in large-scale structures --- from failing concrete dams to calving glaciers --- is dominated by self-weight. Yet, owing to their immense scale, directly studying when and where cracks nucleate and propagate in these systems under gravity is unfeasible. To date, experimental investigations have largely relied on mimicking self-weight in scaled-down specimens via centrifugal forces, necessitating specialized centrifuge facilities. In this Letter, we introduce a simple benchtop test that bypasses the need for this infrastructure. The method utilizes a cantilever beam containing a downward-pointing V-notch, loaded solely by its self-weight. Through appropriate selection of the notch geometry and placement and the beam dimensions, the setup forces a crack to nucleate at the notch tip and propagate through the specimen in a measurable manner. We demonstrate the utility of this self-weight fracture test on a 3D-printable mortar and analyze the results using the fracture theory recently introduced in (\citeauthor{LPKFG2026}, 2026). \emph{Inter alia}, the findings provide a first validation of the theory for fracture driven by body forces.
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BibTeX
@misc{kamarei2026fracture,
title = {{Fracture under body forces: An accessible test and analysis}},
author = {Farhad Kamarei and Sarah Bueno De Castro and Jeffery R. Roesler and Oscar Lopez-Pamies},
howpublished = {arXiv},
year = {2026},
month = oct,
doi = {10.48550/arxiv.2610.03404},
eprint = {2610.03404},
archivePrefix = {arXiv},
url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/2610.03404},
note = {CC BY-NC-ND 4.0},
}
RIS
TY - UNPB
TI - Fracture under body forces: An accessible test and analysis
AU - Farhad Kamarei
AU - Sarah Bueno De Castro
AU - Jeffery R. Roesler
AU - Oscar Lopez-Pamies
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/10/02
PB - arXiv
DO - 10.48550/arxiv.2610.03404
UR - https://arxiv.org/abs/2610.03404
AB - Fracture in large-scale structures --- from failing concrete dams to calving glaciers --- is dominated by self-weight. Yet, owing to their immense scale, directly studying when and where cracks nucleate and propagate in these systems under gravity is unfeasible. To date, experimental investigations have largely relied on mimicking self-weight in scaled-down specimens via centrifugal forces, necessitating specialized centrifuge facilities. In this Letter, we introduce a simple benchtop test that bypasses the need for this infrastructure. The method utilizes a cantilever beam containing a downward-pointing V-notch, loaded solely by its self-weight. Through appropriate selection of the notch geometry and placement and the beam dimensions, the setup forces a crack to nucleate at the notch tip and propagate through the specimen in a measurable manner. We demonstrate the utility of this self-weight fracture test on a 3D-printable mortar and analyze the results using the fracture theory recently introduced in (\citeauthor{LPKFG2026}, 2026). \emph{Inter alia}, the findings provide a first validation of the theory for fracture driven by body forces.
ER -