performing-microscope-mounted-y-shaped-cutting-tests

Performing Microscope-Mounted Y-Shaped Cutting Tests

Y-shaped cutting has recently been shown to be a promising method by which to understand the threshold length scale and failure energy of a material, as ...

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

The cavitation rheology technique extracts soft materials mechanical properties through pressure-monitored fluid injection. Properties are calculated from the system's response at a critical pressure that is governed by either elasticity or fracture (or both); however previous elementary analysis has not been capable of accurately determining which mechanism is dominant. We combine analyses of both mechanisms in order to determine how the full system thermodynamics, including far-field compliance, dictate whether a bubble in an elastomeric solid will grow through either reversible or irreversible deformations. Applying these analyses to experimental data, we demonstrate the sensitivity of cavitation rheology to microstructural variation via a co-dependence between modulus and fracture energy.

Elastic cavitation and fracture via injection.

A generalized Rayleigh-Plesset-type bubble dynamics model with a damage mechanism is developed for cavitation and damage of soft materials by focused ultrasound bursts. This study is linked to recent experimental observations in tissue-mimicking polyacrylamide and agar gel phantoms subjected to bursts of a kind being considered specifically for lithotripsy. These show bubble activation at multiple sites during the initial pulses. More cavities appear continuously through the course of the observations, similar to what is deduced in pig kidney tissues in shock-wave lithotripsy. Two different material models are used to represent the distinct properties of the two gel materials. The polyacrylamide gel is represented with a neo-Hookean elastic model and damaged based upon a maximum-strain criterion; the agar gel is represented with a strain-hardening Fung model and damaged according to the strain-energy-based Griffith's fracture criterion. Estimates based upon independently determined elasticity and viscosity of the two gel materials suggest that bubble confinement should be sufficient to prevent damage in the gels, and presumably injury in some tissues. Damage accumulation is therefore proposed to occur via a material fatigue, which is shown to be consistent with observed delays in widespread cavitation activity.

Cavitation-induced damage of soft materials by focused ultrasound bursts: A fracture-based bubble dynamics model.

We report on crease morphology and evolution at the surface of contracting cavities embedded within elastomeric solids of varying composition (Sylgard 184: pre-polymer to crosslinker mixing ratios of 10 : 1, 12 : 1, 17.5 : 1, and 25 : 1). Cavity contraction is achieved through evaporation of an embedded 10 μL liquid droplet. In validation of recent theoretical predictions, strain-stiffening modeled via the Gent constitutive relation [Jin and Suo, JMPS, 2015, 74, 68-79] is found to govern both crease onset and crease density. Specifically, crease onset matches prediction using only experimentally-measured parameters. Neo-Hookean solids are found to prefer initiating creasing with many short creases that join to form a collapsed state with only a few creases, whereas creasing in Gent solids initiates with a few creases that propagate across the cavity surface. These experimental observations are explained by energy minimization using finite element simulation of a cylindrical crease geometry.

Creasing in evaporation-driven cavity collapse.

Emulsion templates can produce a wide range of unique microstructures via solidification of the continuous phase. Some of these structures result in unique, fluid-filled composites reminiscent of biological tissue when the templating droplets develop into closed-cell structures. However, the state-of-the-art falls short in replicating the mechanical and functional response of biological structures due to stiff, fragile, and bio-incompatible materials while lacking systematic processing parameters. This article describes the synthesis of high internal phase, closed-cell, polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) elastomeric foams which simultaneously achieve biocompatibility, mechanical robustness, flexibility, and selective permeability. Water-in-oil high internal phase emulsions (HIPEs) stabilized by silica nano-particles (SNPs) provide the microstructural template, resulting in a >74% by volume aqueous phase (up to 82%). To overcome the prohibitive barrier to HIPE formation when using a mechanically-superior, but highly viscous commercial PDMS kit, we produce HIPE templates via centrifugation of low internal phase emulsions (LIPEs, <30% by volume dispersed phase). This oil phase crosslinks into an aqueous-filled (water + glycerol + NaCl) elastomeric composite. The composite's microstructural dependence on viscosity ratio, mixing speed, emulsifier concentration, and centrifugal force are systematically characterized. The resulting microstructured, fluid-filled elastomer composites exhibit mechanically robust and highly flexible behavior due to the excellent properties of the PDMS continuous phase.

PDMS polymerized high internal phase emulsions (polyHIPEs) with closed-cell, aqueous-filled microcavities.

Unique observations of cutting energy in silicone elastomers motivate a picture of soft fracture that qualitatively and quantitatively links far-field tearing with push cutting for the first time. For blades of decreasing tip radii, the cutting energy decreases until it reaches a plateau that suggests a threshold for failure. A super-molecular damage zone, necessary for new surface creation, is defined using the tip radius at the onset of this threshold. Modifying the classic Lake-Thomas theory, in which failure occurs within a molecular plane, to this super-molecular zone provides order-of-magnitude agreement with the cutting energy threshold. Together, the threshold fracture energy and damage length scale define criteria for failure that, when implemented in finite element simulation, quantitatively reproduce the increase in cutting energy with increasing blade radius outside of the plateau. The rate of increase depends on the constitutive response of the material, with more neo-Hookean solids requiring a larger failure force per incremental increase in blade radius as observed experimentally. This combination of a geometry-independent failure threshold (from the cutting energy plateau) and a need to account for the role of material deformability in the stress concentration found at the crack tip (from the rate of cutting energy increase with blade radius) align with the discovery of a new dimensionless group. This new parameter proportionally maps cutting energy to the energy required to tear a sample under far-field loading conditions by using ultimate properties obtained in uniaxial tension.

Article	Year
Elastic cavitation and fracture via injection. Soft matter\| PubMed ID: 26837798	2016
Cavitation-induced damage of soft materials by focused ultrasound bursts: A fracture-based bubble dynamics model. The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America\| PubMed ID: 27586763	2016
Creasing in evaporation-driven cavity collapse. Soft matter\| PubMed ID: 28828422	2017
PDMS polymerized high internal phase emulsions (polyHIPEs) with closed-cell, aqueous-filled microcavities. Soft matter\| PubMed ID: 31728471	2019
On the relationship between cutting and tearing in soft elastic solids. Soft matter\| PubMed ID: 34179919	2021

Shelby B. Hutchens

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