Growth of gas-filled penny-shaped cracks in decompressed hydrogels

We report that the decompression of soft brittle materials can lead to the growth of internal gas-filled cracks. These cracks are oblate spheroids ('penny shape'), whose major radius grows linearly in time, irreversibly fracturing the surrounding material. Our optical measurements in hydro...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inSoft matter Vol. 17; no. 4; pp. 815 - 825
Main Authors Zhang, Yansheng, Etzold, Merlin A, Lefauve, Adrien
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published England Royal Society of Chemistry 28.01.2021
Subjects
Brittle materials
Crack geometry
Crack propagation
Cracks
Decompression
Decompression sickness
Fracture mechanics
Gas pressure
Gaseous diffusion
Growth rate
Hydrogels
Mechanical properties
Oblate spheroids
Optical measurement
Optical properties
Scuba diving
Spheroids
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Summary:We report that the decompression of soft brittle materials can lead to the growth of internal gas-filled cracks. These cracks are oblate spheroids ('penny shape'), whose major radius grows linearly in time, irreversibly fracturing the surrounding material. Our optical measurements in hydrogels characterise and quantify the three-dimensional crack geometry and growth rate. These results are in good agreement with our analytical model coupling fracture mechanics and gas diffusion, and predicting the dependence on the mechanical properties, gas diffusivity and super-saturation conditions (gas pressure, solubility, temperature). Our results suggest a new potential mechanism for decompression sickness in scuba diving and for indirect optical measurements of the fracture properties of hydrogels. We use CO 2 -saturated hydrogel beads to explain how the decompression of soft brittle materials can lead to the growth of large internal gas-filled cracks.
Bibliography:10.1039/d0sm01795g
Electronic supplementary information (ESI) available: See DOI
ObjectType-Article-1
SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1
ObjectType-Feature-2
content type line 23
ISSN:1744-683X
1744-6848
DOI:10.1039/d0sm01795g