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Extreme Indentation And Fracture Of Soft Polymer Gels, Shruti Rattan
Extreme Indentation And Fracture Of Soft Polymer Gels, Shruti Rattan
Doctoral Dissertations
The mechanical properties of conventional hard materials, such as metals and ceramics, have received widespread attention in the past several decades; however mechanical characterization, failure in particular, of soft materials, such as polymer gels, elastomers, and biological tissues and organs, has largely been ignored. While practical issues such as difficulty in handling, processing, and slippage offer complexities in characterization, the breakdown of the fundamental assumptions of linear elastic fracture mechanics due to large strains prior to failure, significant energy dissipation ahead of a crack tip and rate and time dependent effects makes understanding of failure in soft materials even more …