The Fracture Point: When Liquids Break the Rules The notion of fluids flowing smoothly is an intuitive one, taken for granted in our daily lives. However, what happens when this expectation is upended?
Certain liquids can fracture under stress like brittle solids, a phenomenon observed by Thamires Lima and her team at Drexel University.
The researchers worked with a nonelastic simple fluid – crude oil or polypropylene – using extensional rheology to test its properties.