Variational Models in Fracture Mechanics

Colloquio della Scuola di Dottorato. Abstract: We present an overview on the variational approach to quasistatic evolution problems in fracture mechanics. We focus on the most recent results on brittle cracks in hyperelastic bodies, in the context of finite elasticity. The solution is obtained through an approximation procedure by time discretization. The approximate solutions are obtained by solving suitable incremental minimum problems.