Fragmentation of Rods by Cascading Cracks: Why Spaghetti Does Not Break in Half

Basile Audoly and Sébastien Neukirch
Phys. Rev. Lett. 95, 095505 – Published 25 August 2005
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Abstract

When thin brittle rods such as dry spaghetti pasta are bent beyond their limit curvature, they often break into more than two pieces, typically three or four. With the aim of understanding these multiple breakings, we study the dynamics of a bent rod that is suddenly released at one end. We find that the sudden relaxation of the curvature at this end leads to a burst of flexural waves, whose dynamics are described by a self-similar solution with no adjustable parameters. These flexural waves locally increase the curvature in the rod, and we argue that this counterintuitive mechanism is responsible for the fragmentation of brittle rods under bending. A simple experiment supporting the claim is presented.

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  • Received 22 December 2004

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.95.095505

©2005 American Physical Society

Authors & Affiliations

Basile Audoly and Sébastien Neukirch

  • Laboratoire de Modélisation en Mécanique, CNRS/Université Paris VI, 4 place Jussieu, Paris, France

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Issue

Vol. 95, Iss. 9 — 26 August 2005

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