Related papers: Basal hydrofractures near sticky patches
The authors previously introduced an activation model for the onset of shear thickening in electrically stabilized colloidal suspensions. It predicts that shear thickening occurs, when particles arranged along the compression axis in a…
We study, both analytically and numerically, the dynamics of elastic boundaries such as crack fronts in fracture and surfaces of contact in solid on solid friction. The elastic waves in the solid give rise to kinks that move with a…
Dilatancy associated with fault slip produces a transient pore pressure drop which increases frictional strength. This effect is analysed in a steadily propagating rupture model that includes frictional weakening, slip-dependent fault…
Two laboratory scale experiments of dry and under-water avalanches of non-cohesive granular materials are investigated. We trigger solitary waves and study the conditions under which the front is transversally stable. We show the existence…
We study how crack buckling affects stress and strain in a thin sheet with random disorder. The sheet is modeled as an elastic lattice of beams where each of the beams have individual thresholds for breaking. A statistical distribution with…
Erosion shapes our landscape and occurs when a sufficient shear stress is exerted by a fluid on a sedimented layer. What controls erosion at a microscopic level remains debated, especially near the threshold forcing where it stops. Here we…
The strength and stability of frictional interfaces, ranging from tribological systems to earthquake faults, are intimately related to the underlying spatially-extended dynamics. Here we provide a comprehensive theoretical account, both…
Unstable growth of cracks (rough crack surface and crack branching) in dynamic fracture has long been observed in various materials. Until now, there was no universally agreed upon explanation for these instabilities. Here, we demonstrate…
When a frictional interface is subject to a localized shear load, it is often (experimentally) observed that local slip events initiate at the stress concentration and propagate over parts of the interface by arresting naturally before…
Volume alteration in solid materials is a common cause of material failure. Here we investigate the crack formation in thin elastic layers attached to a substrate. We show that small variations in the volume contraction and substrate…
In this paper, we show theoretically that there exists quasi-liquid on the edges and vertices of snow crystals between -4C and -22C, while the basal and prism faces have no quasi-liquid layers. Investigating the macroscopic theory of…
Crystalline materials deform in an intermittent way via dislocation-slip avalanches. Below a critical stress, the dislocations are jammed within their glide plane due to long-range elastic interactions and the material exhibits plastic…
Changes in the strength of the thermohaline overturning circulation are associated, by geostrophy, with changes in the east-west pressure difference across an ocean basin. The tropical-polar density contrast and the east-west pressure…
The growth of cracks combines materials science, fracture mechanics, and statistical physics. The importance of fluctuations in the crack velocity is fundamental since it signals that the crack overcomes local barriers such as tough spots…
In viscoelastic materials, individually short-lived bonds collectively result in a mechanical resistance which is long-lived but finite, as ultimately cracks appear. Here we provide a microscopic mechanism by which cracks emerge from the…
I examine the molecular dynamics of ice growth from water vapor, focusing on how the attachment kinetics can be augmented by edge-dependent surface diffusion. Although there are significant uncertainties in developing an accurate physical…
Discontinuous shear-thickening in dense suspensions naturally emerges from the activation of frictional forces by shear flow in non-Brownian systems close to jamming. Yet, this physical picture is incomplete as most experiments study soft…
Charged colloidal dispersions make up the basis of a broad range of industrial and commercial products, from paints to coatings and additives in cosmetics. During drying, an initially liquid dispersion of such particles is slowly…
The mechanical response of solid particles dispersed in a Newtonian fluid exhibits a wide range of nonlinear phenomena including a dramatic increase in the viscosity \cite{1-3} with increasing stress. If the volume fraction of the solid…
The localized loading of an elastic sheet floating on a liquid bath occurs at scales from a frog sitting on a lily pad to a volcano supported by the Earth's tectonic plates. The load is supported by a combination of the stresses within the…