Revisiting Energy Release Rates in Brittle Fracture

We revisit in a 2d setting the notion of energy release rate, which plays a pivotal role in brittle fracture. Through a blow-up method, we extend that notion to crack patterns which are merely closed sets connected to the crack tip. As an application, we demonstrate that, modulo a simple meta-stability principle, a moving crack cannot generically kink while growing continuously in time. This last result settles a longstanding debate in fracture mechanics on the correct criterion for kinking.