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Published on: February 3, 2014
Finite-distance singularities in the tearing of thin sheets
E Bayart1, A Boudaoud, M Adda-Bedia
1Laboratoire de Physique Statistique, Ecole Normale Supérieure, UPMC Paris 06, Université Paris Diderot, CNRS, 24 rue Lhomond, 75005 Paris, France.
Abstract:
We investigate the interaction between two cracks propagating quasistatically in a thin sheet. Two different experimental geometries allow us to tear sheets by imposing an out-of-plane shear loading. A single tear propagates in a straight line independently of its position in the sheet. In contrast, we find that two tears converge along self-similar paths and annihilate each other. These finite-distance singularities display geometry-dependent similarity exponents, which we retrieve using scaling arguments based on a balance between the stretching and the bending of the sheet close to the tips of the cracks.
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