Related papers: Fracture Patterns Induced by Desiccation in a Thin…

In the assessment of wood charring, it was believed for a long time that physicochemical processes were responsible for the creation of cracking patterns on the charring wood surface. This implied no possibility to rigorously explain the…

We propose a theoretical model for branching instabilities in 2-dimensional fracture, offering predictions for when crack branching occurs, how multiple cracks develop, and what is the geometry of multiple branches. The model is based on…

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…

We review recent theoretical progress on the dynamics of brittle crack fronts and its relationship to the roughness of fracture surfaces. We discuss the possibility that the intermediate scale roughness of cracks, which is characterized by…

Friction plays a fundamental role in many natural processes, including earthquakes, landslides, and volcanic eruptions. Earthquakes occur when highly compressed fault surfaces accumulate large enough shear stresses, causing the faults to…

We investigate the geometry of two-dimensional polygonal cracking that forms on the air-exposed surface of dried starch slurries. Two different kinds of starches, made from potato and corn, exhibited distinguished crack evolution, and there…

Self-similar solutions of the equation that describes spreading of a liquid layer due to intermolecular forces are found. It is supposed that, when the thickness of the layer reaches some magnitude of the order of the molecular size, it…

Slow crack growth in a model of homogenous brittle elastic material is described as a thermal activation process where stress fluctuations allow to overcome a breaking threshold through a series of irreversible steps. We study the case of a…

We investigate dynamic crack propagation and fragmentation with the phase-field fracture approach. The method was chosen for its ability to yield crack paths that are independent of the underlying mesh, thanks to the damage regularization…

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 instability, dynamics and morphological transitions of patterns in thin liquid films on periodic striped surfaces (consisting of alternating less and more wettable stripes) are investigated based on 3-D nonlinear simulations that…

While of paramount importance in material science, the dynamics of cracks still lacks a complete physical explanation. The transition from their slow creep behavior to a fast propagation regime is a notable key, as it leads to full material…

We analyze a two-dimensional spring network model comprising breakable and unbreakable springs. Computer simulations showed this system to exhibit intermittent stress drops in a larger strain regime, and these stress drops resulted in…

Shear cracks propagation is a basic dynamical process that mediates interfacial failure. We develop a general weakly nonlinear elastic theory of shear cracks and show that these experience tensile-mode crack tip deformation, including…

Thin sheets respond to confinement by smoothly wrinkling, or by focusing stress into small, sharp regions. From engineering to biology, geology, textiles, and art, thin sheets are packed and confined in a wide variety of ways, and yet…

The growth of a rough and porous thin surface by deposition of randomly shaped clusters with different sizes over an initially flat linear substrate is simulated, using Monte Carlo technique. Unlike the ordinary Random Deposition, our…

A planar crack generically segments into an array of "daughter cracks" shaped as tilted facets when loaded with both a tensile stress normal to the crack plane (mode I) and a shear stress parallel to the crack front (mode III). We…

Drying a droplet of colloidal dispersion can result in complex pattern formation due to both development and deformation of a skin at the drop surface. The present study focus on the drying process of droplets of colloidal dispersions in a…

We investigate the formation of stripe patterns that appear on the surface of a dry granular system as the container is deformed very slowly. In an experimental study using nearly mono-disperse glass beads, we found that many faults develop…

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…