Rifts in Rafts

TL;DR

This study investigates how particle rafts on expanding liquid surfaces fail under different stretching speeds, revealing a competition between particle relaxation and expansion that determines the pattern of rift formation.

Contribution

It introduces a model linking failure morphology to the competition between re-aggregation and expansion velocities in particle rafts.

Findings

Failure morphology varies continuously with pulling velocity.

A model based on velocity competition explains the observed patterns.

The cluster length between rifts is determined by the balance of two velocity scales.

Abstract

A particle raft floating on an expanding liquid substrate provides a macroscopic analog for studying material failure. The time scales in this system allow both particle-relaxation dynamics and rift formation to be resolved. In our experiments, a raft, an aggregate of particles, is stretched uniaxially by the expansion of the air-liquid interface on which it floats. Its failure morphology changes continuously with pulling velocity. This can be understood as a competition between two velocity scales: the speed of re-aggregation, in which particles relax towards a low-energy configuration determined by viscous and capillary forces, and the difference of velocity between neighboring particles caused by the expanding fluid. This competition selects the cluster length, i.e., the distance between adjacent rifts. A model based on this competition is consistent with the experimental failure patterns.