Related papers: How super-tough gels break
We investigate dynamic fracture of heterogeneous materials experimentally by measuring displacement fields as a rupture propagates through a periodic array of obstacles of controlled fracture energy. Our measurements demonstrate the…
We investigate the fragmentation of ring-like brittle structures under explosive loading using a discrete element model. By systematically varying ring thickness and strain rate, we uncover a transition from one-dimensional (1D)…
We study the interaction between two cracks propagating quasistatically during the tearing of a thin brittle sheet. We show that the cracks attract each other following a path described by a power law resulting from the competition between…
We discuss the threshold activated extremal dynamics that is prevalent in the breakdown processes in heterogeneous materials. We model such systems by an elastic spring network with random breaking thresholds assigned to the springs.…
A droplet of surfactant spreading on an ultrasoft ($E \lesssim 100$ Pa) gel substrate will produce capillary fractures at the gel surface; these fractures originate at the contact-line and propagate outwards in a starburst pattern. There is…
The fracture strength distribution of materials is often described in terms of the Weibull law which can be derived by using extreme value statistics if elastic interactions are ignored. Here, we consider explicitly the interplay between…
We analyze the failure process of a two-component system with widely different fracture strength in the framework of a fiber bundle model with localized load sharing. A fraction 0\leq \alpha \leq 1 of the bundle is strong and it is…
We report in situ Atomic Force Microscopy experiments which reveal the presence of nanoscale damage cavities ahead of a stress-corrosion crack tip in glass. Their presence might explain the departure from linear elasticity observed in the…
We present high resolution measurements of the displacement and strain fields near the tip of a dynamic (Mode I) crack. The experiments are performed on polyacrylamide gels, brittle elastomers whose fracture dynamics mirror those of typical…
Fracture toughness is the material property characterizing resistance to failure. Predicting its value from the solid structure at the atomistic scale remains elusive, even in the simplest situations of brittle fracture. We report here…
In this report we present a study on the strength of rocks which are partially fractured from before. We have considered a two dimensional case of a rock in the form of a lattice structure. The fiber bundle model is used for modelling the…
A high-fidelity neural network-based force field, NN-F$^{3}$, is developed to cover the strain states up to material failure and the non-equilibrium, intermediate nature of fracture. Simulations of fracture in 2D crystals using NN-F$^{3}$…
Tough adhesive hydrogels find broad applications in engineering and medicine. Such hydrogels feature high resistance against both cohesion and adhesion failure. The superior fracture properties may, however, deteriorate when the hydrogels…
Classical rupture is attributed to molecular (van der Waals) forces acting at nanometric thicknesses. Nonetheless, micron-thick liquid sheets routinely perforate far above the scale where these molecular forces act, yet the mechanism that…
Soft materials including elastomers and gels are pervasive in biological systems and technological applications. Whereas it is known that intrinsic fracture energies of soft materials are relatively low, how the intrinsic fracture energy…
This paper describes an attempt to construct a first-principles theory of the fracture toughness of crystalline solids. It is based on the thermodynamic dislocation theory (TDT), which starts with the assertion that dislocations in solids…
Using Langevin Dynamic simulations, we study effects of the shear force on the rupture of a double stranded DNA molecule. The model studied here contains two single diblock copolymers interacting with each other. The elastic constants of…
We measure the rheology of transient hydrogels comprised of a single type of DNA nanostar that makes both strong and weak bonds. These gels exhibit power-law frequency-dependence of their storage and loss moduli, with scaling exponents that…
This study investigated, experimentally and numerically, the fracturing behavior of thermoset polymer structures featuring cracks and sharp u-notches. It is shown that, even for cases in which the sharpness of the notch would suggest…
Dicing soft solids with a sharp knife is quicker and smoother if the blade is sliding rapidly parallel to its edge in addition to the normal squeezing motion. We explain this common observation with a consistent theory suited for soft gels…