Abstract
When a cylindrical tool cuts through a thin sheet of a relatively brittle material, it leaves behind a visually arresting crack street in its wake, reminiscent of a vortex street in the wake of a cylinder moving through a fluid. We show that simple geometrical arguments based on the interplay of in-plane stretching and out-of-plane bending suffice to explain the cycloidal morphology of the curved crack. The coupling between geometry and dynamics also allows us to explain the “stick-slip”-like behavior of tearing and suggests that these oscillations should occur generically in the brittle fracture of thin solid films.
- Received 22 July 2003
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.91.215507
©2003 American Physical Society