Predicting Fracture in Soft Tough Materials

Presenter: 

Teng Zhang

Authors: 

Teng Zhang, Shaoting Lin, Hyunwoo Yuk, Xuanhe Zhao

Author Affiliation: 

MIT

Abstract: 

We propose a predictive model for the fracture toughness of soft materials and perform both theoretical analysis and experimental tests to investigate the toughening mechanism due to energy dissipation in soft materials. Our results suggest that energy dissipation is a very efficient way to toughen the soft materials, where the high intrinsic fracture energy, high energy dissipation and quick transition to the maximum dissipation are three key factors. Our continuum model has been quantitatively compared with experiments and thus is capable to serve as the theoretical foundation for the design of tough soft materials.