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Media type:
E-Article
Title:
Sideways and stable crack propagation in a silicone elastomer
Contributor:
Lee, Seunghyun;
Pharr, Matt
Published:
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 2019
Published in:
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 116 (2019) 19, Seite 9251-9256
Language:
English
DOI:
10.1073/pnas.1820424116
ISSN:
0027-8424;
1091-6490
Origination:
Footnote:
Description:
Significance Soft materials exhibit fundamentally different fracture characteristics from other materials, and as such represent an open and fascinating research area. Herein, we have discovered a form of fracture in soft elastomers that we call “sideways cracking” in which cracks propagate perpendicular to their “standard” trajectory. These sideways cracks stably arrest, thereby allowing the material ahead of the crack to continue to sustain large loads. As such, understanding this phenomenon may enable the engineering of highly robust and stretchable materials. To explain this behavior, we perform mechanics-based analyses and substantiate a hypothesis that this behavior stems from structural rearrangement of polymer chains during stretching. Overall, this paper provides fundamental mechanical insight into basic phenomena associated with fracture of elastomers.