Eur. Phys. J. E (2006) 21: 81-89
https://doi.org/10.1140/epje/i2006-10048-6

Regular Article

Fracture of a biopolymer gel as a viscoplastic disentanglement process

UMR 7588, Campus Boucicaut, INSP, Université Pierre et Marie Curie-Paris 6, Université Denis Diderot-Paris 7, CNRS, 140 rue de Lourmel, 75015, Paris, France

^* e-mail: tristan@insp.jussieu.fr

Received: 29 June 2006
Accepted: 12 October 2006
Published online: 9 November 2006

Abstract

We present an extensive experimental study of mode-I, steady, slow crack dynamics in gelatin gels. Taking advantage of the sensitivity of the elastic stiffness to gel composition and history we confirm and extend the model for fracture of physical hydrogels which we proposed in a previous paper (Nature Mater. 5, 552 (2006)), which attributes decohesion to the viscoplastic pull-out of the network-constituting chains. So, we propose that, in contrast with chemically cross-linked ones, reversible gels fracture without chain scission.