Dynamics of fracture in drying suspensions.
We investigate the dynamics of fracture in drying films of colloidal silica. Water loss quenches the nanoparticle dispersions to form a liquid-saturated elastic network of particles that relieves drying-induced strain by cracking. These cracks display intriguing intermittent motion originating from the deformation of arrested crack tips and aging of the elastic network. The dynamics of a single crack exhibits a universal evolution, described by a balance of the driving elastic power with the sum of interfacial power and the viscous dissipation rate of flowing interstitial fluid.
Dufresne
E R
ER
DEAS, Department of Physics, and Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138, USA. eric.dufresne@yale.edu
Stark
D J
DJ
Greenblatt
N A
NA
Cheng
J X
JX
Hutchinson
J W
JW
Mahadevan
L
L
Weitz
D A
DA