Bulk elastic fingering instability in Hele-Shaw cells
arXiv:1207.0110 · doi:10.1103/PhysRevLett.111.047801
Abstract
We demonstrate experimentally the existence of a purely elastic fingering instability which arises when air penetrates into an elastomer confined in a Hele-Shaw cell. Fingers appear sequentially and propagate within the bulk of the material as soon as a critical strain, independent of the elastic modulus, is exceeded. Their width depends non-linearly on the distance between the confining glass plates. A key element in the driving force of the instability is the adhesion of layers of gels to the plates, which results in a considerable expense of elastic energy during the growth of the air bubble.
Submitted to Physical Review letters; 5 pages; 6 figures
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