Related papers: Spiral cracks without twisting
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…
The present paper demonstrates how a natural crack mosaic resembling a random tessellation evolves with repeated 'wetting followed by drying' cycles. The natural system here is a crack network in a drying colloidal material, for example, a…
We describe experimental investigations of the structure of two-dimensional spherical crystals. The crystals, formed by beads self-assembled on water droplets in oil, serve as model systems for exploring very general theories about the…
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…
Pattern formation of a thin layer of vertically agitated wet granular matter is investigated experimentally. Due to the strong cohesion arising from the capillary bridges formed between adjacent particles, agitated wet granular matter…
The term "solid-state turbulence" may sound like an oxymoron, but in fact it is not. In this article we demonstrate that solid-state turbulence may emerge owing to a defining property of the solid state: the ability of a solid to retain its…
We investigate the shrinkage induced breakup of thin layers of heterogeneous materials attached to a substrate, a ubiquitous natural phenomenon with a wide range of potential applications. Focusing on the evolution of the fragment ensemble,…
During brittle crack propagation, a smooth crack front curve frequently becomes disjoint, generating a stepped crack and a material ligament that unites the newly formed crack fronts. These universal features fundamentally alter the…
In the presence of extended defects, familiar incoming particles can scatter into exotic outgoing states created by twist operators. We show that one possible mechanism driving these "categorical scattering" processes is the presence of…
The fragmentation of a two-dimensional circular disc by lateral impact is investigated using a cell model of brittle solid. The disc is composed of numerous unbreakable randomly shaped convex polygons connected together by simple elastic…
Fully developed turbulence is a universal and scale-invariant chaotic state characterized by an energy cascade from large to small scales where the cascade is eventually arrested by dissipation. In this article, we show how to harness these…
Predicting when rupture occurs or cracks progress is a major challenge in numerous elds of industrial, societal and geophysical importance. It remains largely unsolved: Stress enhancement at cracks and defects, indeed, makes the macroscale…
The analogy between frictional cracks, propagating along interfaces in frictional contact, and ordinary cracks in bulk materials is important in various fields. We consider a stress-controlled frictional crack propagating at a velocity…
Planets are often covered with thin cracked shells. From mud films to lithospheres of rock or ice, fracture networks form two-dimensional (2D) tessellations of convex polygons whose geometry encodes their genesis. Here we chart the geometry…
We investigate the scaling properties of the sources of crackling noise in a fully-dynamic numerical model of sedimentary rocks subject to uniaxial compression. The model is initiated by filling a cylindrical container with randomly-sized…
Cracks develop various surface patterns as they propagate in three-dimensional (3D) materials. Facet formation in nominally tensile (mode-I) fracture emerge in the slow, non-inertial regime and oftentimes takes the form of surface steps. We…
We investigate the structure and distribution of arches formed by spherical, hard particles shaken in an external field after they come to rest. Arches (or bridges) are formed during a computer-simulated, non-sequential deposition of the…
The dynamics of frictional interfaces play an important role in many physical systems spanning a broad range of scales. It is well-known that frictional interfaces separating two dissimilar materials couple interfacial slip and normal…
We propose a mechanical model for the behaviour of rocks based on progressive damage at the elementary scale and elastic interaction. It allows us to simulate several experimental observations: mechanical behaviour ranging from brittle to…
This paper demonstrates that rapid fracture of ideal brittle lattices naturally involves phenomena long seen in experiment, but which have been hard to understand from a continuum point of view. These idealized models do not mimic realistic…