Fragmentation of liquid and liquid-plastic media under unsteady strains

Based on a qualitative analysis of results of experimental studies, the main mechanisms of fragmentation of polar liquids and liquid-plastic media under dynamic loading are determined. In the case of low-viscosity liquids, such mechanisms are thermodynamic instability of foam, hydrodynamic instability of initial disturbances of the free surface, and the action of capillary forces. In the case of a polar high-viscosity liquid, the main mechanisms are shear instability of the structure, responsible for stratification of the medium along the lines of local failure of structural viscosity, and the action of capillary forces. The main mechanisms acting in liquid-plastic structured media (gels) are “spalling” in the zone of tensile stresses if the time of their formation is smaller than the time needed for the gel to transform to the sol state, as well as thermodynamic instability of foam and the action of capillary forces after the medium transition to the sol state. __________ Translated from Prikladnaya Mekhanika i Tekhnicheskaya Fizika, Vol. 48, No. 4, pp. 62–68, July–August, 2007.