A convective instability mechanism for quasistatic crack branching in a hydrogel |
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Authors: | T Baumberger and O Ronsin |
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Institution: | (1) Department of Chemical Engineering, National Tsing Hua University, Hsinchu, 30043, Taiwan, ROC;(2) Polymer Science and Engineering, National Chemical Laboratory, Homi Bhabha Road, Pashan, Pune, 411008, India |
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Abstract: | Experiments on quasistatic crack propagation in gelatin hydrogels reveal a new branching instability triggered by wetting
the tip opening with a drop of aqueous solvent less viscous than the bulk one. We show that the emergence of unstable branches
results from a balance between the rate of secondary crack growth and the rate of advection away from a non-linear elastic
region of size G/E , where G is the fracture energy and E the small strain Young modulus. We build a minimal, predictive model that combines mechanical characteristics of this mesoscopic
region and physical features of the process zone. It accounts for the details of the stability diagram and lends support to
the idea that non-linear elasticity plays a critical role in crack front instabilities. |
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Keywords: | |
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