Growth of slip surfaces and line inclusions along shear bands in a softening material.

perturbative approach applied to prestressed elastic solids exhibiting strain softening (of the true-stress/true-strain response) provides an explanation to the common observation that shear bands formed within ductile and quasi-brittle materials tend to grow rectilinearly under Mode II and that slip surfaces tend to nucleate and grow inside them. The effects of an ‘obstacle’ (a rigid line inclusion) within a shear band are also analyzed and quantified in terms of inhibition of shear band growth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]