Nonlocal elastodynamics and fracture

A nonlocal field theory of peridynamic type is applied to model the brittle fracture problem. The elastic fields obtained from the nonlocal model are shown to converge in the limit of vanishing non-locality to solutions of classic plane elastodynamics associated with a running crack. We carry out our analysis for a plate subject to mode one loading. The length of the crack is prescribed a priori and is an increasing function of time.