V rabote privedeny rezul"taty issledovaniya zakonomernostey bystrogo rasprostraneniya i vetvleniya treshchiny v tverdykh telakh razlichnoy prirody. Opisany metodiki eksperimental"noy realizatsii razrusheniya plastin i tonkostennykh tsilindricheskikh obolochek s vetvleniem treshchin. Ustanovleno, chto makroskopicheskie zakonomernosti razrusheniya yavlyayutsya obshchimi dlya model"nogo (polimetilmetakrilata) i konstruktsionnogo (uglerodistaya stal") materialov. Na osnovanii issledovaniya evolyutsii zon protsessov razrusheniya pri perekhode treshchiny k rezhimu vetvleniya predlozhen fizicheskiy mekhanizm vetvleniya treshchiny v tverdykh telakh.