Abstract
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.
- Received 30 April 2015
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.115.188105
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Published by the American Physical Society
Synopsis
Unexpected Cracking Behavior in Composite Structures
Published 28 October 2015
A combination of brittle and porous materials fractures under opposite conditions to conventional brittle materials.
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