English

Magic angles and cross-hatching instability in hydrogel fracture

Soft Condensed Matter 2009-11-13 v2

Abstract

The full 2D analysis of roughness profiles of fracture surfaces resulting from quasi-static crack propagation in gelatin gels reveals an original behavior characterized by (i) strong anisotropy with maximum roughness at VV-independent symmetry-preserving angles, (ii) a sub-critical instability leading, below a critical velocity, to a cross-hatched regime due to straight macrosteps drifting at the same magic angles and nucleated on crack-pinning network inhomogeneities. Step height values are determined by the width of the strain-hardened zone, governed by the elastic crack blunting characteristic of soft solids with breaking stresses much larger that low strain moduli.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.0801.1557,
  title  = {Magic angles and cross-hatching instability in hydrogel fracture},
  author = {Tristan Baumberger and Christiane Caroli and David Martina and Olivier Ronsin},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:0801.1557},
  year   = {2009}
}
R2 v1 2026-06-21T10:01:33.856Z