Related papers: Crack formation and self-closing in shrinkable, gr…

Granular convergence is a property of a granular pack as it is repeatedly sheared in a cyclic, quasistatic fashion, as the packing configuration changes via discrete events. Under suitable conditions the set of microscopic configurations…

We study a theoretical model of mud cracks, that is, the fracture patterns resulting from the contraction with drying in a thin layer of a mixture of granules and water. In this model, we consider the slip on the bottom of this layer and…

Soft-granular media, such as dense emulsions, foams or tissues, exhibit either fluid- or solid-like properties depending on the applied external stresses. Whereas bulk rheology of such materials has been thoroughly investigated, the…

Granular materials densify under repeated mechanical perturbations, a nonequilibrium dynamics that underlies many natural and industrial processes. Because granular relaxation is governed by frictional contacts and energy dissipation, this…

We propose a model for the formation of drying cracks in a viscoplastic material. In this model, we observe that when an external force is applied to a viscoplastic material before drying, the material memorizes the effect of the force as a…

Materials are often heterogeneous at various length scales, with variations in grain structure, defects, and composition which has a strong influence on the emergent macroscopic plastic behavior. In particular, heterogeneities lead to…

We consider a model of fragmentation of sheet by cracks that move with a velocity in preferred direction, but undergo random transverse displacements as they move. There is a non-zero probability of crack-splitting, and the split cracks…

Clay, the major ingredient of natural soils, is often used as a rheological modifier while formulating paints and coatings. When subjected to desiccation, colloidal clay suspensions and clayey soils crack due to the accumulation of…

Random packings of granular chains are presented as a model polymer system to investigate the contribution of entanglements to strain-stiffening in the absence of Brownian motion. The chain packings are sheared in triaxial compression…

We investigate a gas of wet granular particles, covered by a thin liquid film. The dynamic evolution is governed by two-particle interactions, which are mainly due to interfacial forces in contrast to dry granular gases. When two wet grains…

The fracture mechanics was widely employed to explain the crack propagation in the deposition produced by drying colloidal suspension. However, more complex than conventional fracture, those cracks periodically distribute and make up a…

Damage caused by freezing wet, porous materials is a widespread problem, but is hard to predict or control. Here, we show that polycrystallinity makes a great difference to the stress build-up process that underpins this damage. Unfrozen…

-- A scientific hurdle in manufacturing solid films by drying colloidal layers is preventing them from fracturing. This paper examines how the drying rate of colloidal liquids influences the particle packing at the nanoscale in correlation…

The drying of a colloidal dispersion can result in a gel phase defined as a porous matrix saturated in solvent. During the drying process, high mechanical stresses are generated. When these stresses exceed the strength of the material, they…

We describe the shear flow of a disordered granular material in the presence of grain fracture using the shear-transformation-zone (STZ) theory of amorphous plasticity adapted to systems with a hard-core inter-particle interaction. To this…

The developing structure in systems of compacting ductile grains were studied experimentally in two and three dimensions. In both dimensions, the peaks of the radial distribution function were reduced, broadened, and shifted compared with…

It is shown here that fracture after a brief plastic strain, typically of a few percents, is a necessary consequence of the polycrystalline nature of the materials. The polycrystal undergoing plastic deformation is modeled as a flowing…

In established theories of grain coarsening, grains disappear either by shrinking or by rotating as a rigid object to coalesce with an adjacent grain. Here we report a third mechanism for grain coarsening, in which a grain splits apart into…

Nearly all dense suspensions undergo dramatic and abrupt thickening transitions in their flow behaviour when sheared at high stresses. Such transitions occur when the dominant interactions between the suspended particles shift from…

We investigate the formation of spiral crack patterns during the desiccation of thin layers of precipitates in contact with a substrate. This symmetry-breaking fracturing mode is found to arise naturally not from torsion forces, but from a…