Hydraulic fracture and toughening of a brittle layer bonded to a hydrogel

Brittle materials propagate opening cracks under tension. When stress increases beyond a critical magnitude, then quasistatic crack propagation becomes unstable. In the presence of several precracks, a brittle material always propagates only the weakest crack, leading to catastrophic failure. Here,...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores: Lucantonio, Alessandro, Noselli, Giovanni, Trepat Guixer, Xavier, Arroyo Balaguer, Marino|||0000-0003-1647-940X, DeSimone, Antonio
Tipo de recurso: artículo
Fecha de publicación:2015
País:España
Institución:Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC)
Repositorio:UPCommons. Portal del coneixement obert de la UPC
Idioma:inglés
OAI Identifier:oai:upcommons.upc.edu:2117/80177
Acceso en línea:https://hdl.handle.net/2117/80177
https://dx.doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.115.188105
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palabra clave:Brittleness
Materials -- Fragilitat
Àrees temàtiques de la UPC::Enginyeria dels materials::Assaig de materials
Descripción
Sumario:Brittle materials propagate opening cracks under tension. When stress increases beyond a critical magnitude, then quasistatic crack propagation becomes unstable. In the presence of several precracks, a brittle material always propagates only the weakest crack, leading to catastrophic failure. Here, we show that all these features of brittle fracture are fundamentally modified when the material susceptible to cracking is bonded to a hydrogel, a common situation in biological tissues. In the presence of the hydrogel, the brittle material can fracture in compression and can hydraulically resist cracking in tension. Furthermore, the poroelastic coupling regularizes the crack dynamics and enhances material toughness by promoting multiple cracking.