Gaume, JohanGast, T.Teran, J.van Herwijnen, A.Jiang, C.2019-05-092019-05-092019-05-092018-09-3010.1038/s41467-018-05181-whttps://infoscience.epfl.ch/handle/20.500.14299/156362Continuum numerical modeling of dynamic crack propagation has been a great challenge over the past decade. This is particularly the case for anticracks in porous materials, as reported in sedimentary rocks, deep earthquakes, landslides, and snow avalanches, as material inter-penetration further complicates the problem. Here, on the basis of a new elastoplasticity model for porous cohesive materials and a large strain hybrid Eulerian–Lagrangian numerical method, we accurately reproduced the onset and propagation dynamics of anticracks observed in snow fracture experiments. The key ingredient consists of a modified strain-softening plastic flow rule that captures the complexity of porous materials under mixed-mode loading accounting for the interplay between cohesion loss and volumetric collapse. Our unified model represents a significant step forward as it simulates solid-fluid phase transitions in geomaterials which is of paramount importance to mitigate and forecast gravitational hazards.Applied mathematicsMechanical engineeringNatural hazardstext::journal::journal article::research article