Creep of a fracture line in paper peeling

TL;DR

This study investigates the slow, creep-driven fracture dynamics in paper peeling, revealing exponential velocity-force relations, avalanche-like intermittency, and power-law energy statistics, contributing insights into fracture processes and creep theory.

Contribution

It provides experimental evidence of creep fracture dynamics in paper, highlighting avalanche behavior and power-law energy distributions, linking to elastic manifold creep theory.

Findings

Velocity-force relation is exponential.

Fracture line exhibits avalanche dynamics.

Energy distribution follows a power-law with exponent ~1.8.

Abstract

The slow motion of a crack line is studied via an experiment in which sheets of paper are split into two halves in a ``peel-in-nip'' (PIN) geometry under a constant load, in creep. The velocity-force relation is exponential. The dynamics of the fracture line exhibits intermittency, or avalanches, which are studied using acoustic emission. The energy statistics is a power-law, with the exponent $\beta \sim 1.8 \pm 0.1$. Both the waiting times between subsequent events and the displacement of the fracture line imply complicated stick-slip dynamics. We discuss the correspondence to tensile PIN tests and other similar experiments on in-plane fracture and the theory of creep for elastic manifolds.