Physics of Brittle Failure during Impact

• Hollis Williams ^[1]
  1. [1] Independent Researcher, Winchester, UK
• Localización: The Physics Teacher, ISSN 0031-921X, Vol. 62, Nº. 7, 2024, págs. 575-578
• Idioma: inglés
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• Resumen

  • In daily life, we are familiar with the fact that a glass or a ceramic mug that is knocked from a table shatters when it hits the ground. However, the phenomenology behind this event is perhaps less familiar due to the speed with which it happens. Examination of the recovered fragments shows that the mug generally breaks up into several large pieces with some other smaller chips as well, but how does this happen? In this article, we use video analysis to study the physics of this process in more detail, showing that the object typically bounces before splitting into pieces, with the splitting proceeding by crack propagation. We obtain rough estimates for speed of fracture propagation in ceramic materials and glass that are consistent with previous experimental studies.