Abstract
Understanding the physics of fragmentation is important in a wide range of industrial and geophysical applications. Fragmentation processes involve large strain rates and short time scales that take place during crack nucleation and propagation. Using rubber membranes, we develop an experimental analysis that enables us to track the fragmentation process in situ in both time and space. We find that bursting a highly stretched membrane yields a treelike fragmentation network that originates at a single seed crack, followed by successive crack tip-splitting events. We show that a dynamic instability drives this branching mechanism. Fragmentation occurs when the crack tip speed attains a critical velocity for which tip splitting becomes the sole available mechanism of releasing the stored elastic energy. Given the general character of the fragmentation processes, this framework should be applicable to other crack networks in brittle materials.
- Received 29 July 2015
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.115.184301
© 2015 American Physical Society
Physics Subject Headings (PhySH)
Focus
Two Modes of Balloon Bursting Revealed
Published 30 October 2015
A balloon with low internal pressure bursts through the growth of a single crack, but above a critical pressure, it breaks apart from multiple cracks.
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