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arXiv · 0706.3562

Subcritical crack growth in fibrous materials

Stéphane Santucci·Pierre-Philippe Cortet·Stéphanie Deschanel·Loic Vanel·Sergio Ciliberto
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Abstract

We present experiments on the slow growth of a single crack in a fax paper sheet submitted to a constant force $F$. We find that statistically averaged crack growth curves can be described by only two parameters : the mean rupture time $τ$ and a characteristic growth length $ζ$. We propose a model based on a thermally activated rupture process that takes into account the microstructure of cellulose fibers. The model is able to reproduce the shape of the growth curve, the dependence of $ζ$ on $F$ as well as the effect of temperature on the rupture time $τ$. We find that the length scale at which rupture occurs in this model is consistently close to the diameter of cellulose microfibrils.

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Stéphane Santucci, Pierre-Philippe Cortet, Stéphanie Deschanel, Loic Vanel, Sergio Ciliberto. 2007-06-25. Subcritical crack growth in fibrous materials. https://doi.org/10.1209/epl%2Fi2005-10575-2

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