Livne A, Cohen G, Fineberg J
The Racah Institute of Physics, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem 91904, Israel.
Phys Rev Lett. 2005 Jun 10;94(22):224301. doi: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.94.224301.
Experiments in the dynamic fracture of brittle polyacrylamide gels show that a single-crack state undergoes a hysteretic transition to the microbranching instability with a characteristic activation time. Quantitative measurements also indicate that features such as crack front inertia, self-focusing of microbranches, and the appearance of front waves are universal attributes of dynamic fracture.