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Drying Shrinkage01:21

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When hardened concrete is exposed to air with a relative humidity of less than 100 percent, it begins to lose the free water within its capillaries. As this water evaporates, the water initially adsorbed onto the calcium silicate hydrates migrates towards these now empty spaces and eventually evaporates as well. Over time, as more water leaves, the volume of the concrete decreases, a phenomenon known as drying shrinkage.
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Children at play often make suspensions such as mixtures of mud and water, flour and water, or a suspension of solid pigments in water known as tempera paint. These suspensions are heterogeneous mixtures composed of relatively large particles visible to the naked eye or seen with a magnifying glass. They are cloudy, and the suspended particles settle out after mixing. The suspended particles in a suspension settle out after some time of mixing. The separation of particles from a suspension is...
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Cracking to curling transition in drying colloidal films.

Weipeng Meng1, Mingchao Liu1,2, Yixiang Gan3

  • 1Department of Engineering Mechanics, CNMM & AML, Tsinghua University, 100084, Beijing, China.

The European Physical Journal. E, Soft Matter
|October 3, 2020
PubMed
Summary

Drying colloidal films transition from random cracking to curling as water content increases. This failure mode shift, dependent on initial water content and film thickness, is explained by a fracture mechanics model.

Keywords:
Soft Matter: Colloids and Nanoparticles

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Area of Science:

  • Materials Science
  • Physics
  • Chemical Engineering

Background:

  • Drying-induced cracking is a common phenomenon in natural processes and industrial applications.
  • The nonlinear evolution of water content during desiccation influences material behavior.
  • Understanding crack pattern formation in drying films is crucial for material design.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To experimentally investigate the influence of initial water content on the failure modes of drying colloidal films.
  • To identify the critical water content threshold for the transition between different failure mechanisms.
  • To develop a theoretical model explaining the observed failure transitions.

Main Methods:

  • Experimental observation of colloidal film drying under varying initial water content.
  • Characterization of crack patterns and failure modes (random cracking vs. curling).
  • Development of a theoretical model based on fracture mechanics and energy principles.

Main Results:

  • A distinct transition from random cracking to film curling was observed with increasing initial water content.
  • The critical water content for this transition was found to be dependent on the film thickness.
  • The theoretical model successfully predicted the observed failure modes and their dependence on water content.

Conclusions:

  • Initial water content is a critical parameter governing the failure mode of drying colloidal films.
  • A transition from desiccation cracking to curling occurs beyond a specific water content threshold.
  • The developed fracture mechanics model provides a quantitative explanation for the observed phenomena.