Magic angles and cross-hatching instability in hydrogel fracture

Abstract

The full 2D analysis of roughness profiles of fracture surfaces resulting from quasi-static crack propagation in gelatin gels reveals an original behavior characterized by (i) strong anisotropy with maximum roughness at $V$-independent symmetry-preserving angles, (ii) a sub-critical instability leading, below a critical velocity, to a cross-hatched regime due to straight macrosteps drifting at the same magic angles and nucleated on crack-pinning network inhomogeneities. Step height values are determined by the width of the strain-hardened zone, governed by the elastic crack blunting characteristic of soft solids with breaking stresses much larger that low strain moduli.

References in corpus (2)

• Solvent control of crack dynamics in a reversible hydrogel
• Fracture of a biopolymer gel as a viscoplastic disentanglement process

Cited by in corpus (1)

• From thermally activated to viscosity controlled fracture of biopolymer hydrogels