Oscillatory fracture path in thin elastic sheet

We report a novel mode of oscillatory crack propagation when a cutting tip is driven through a thin brittle polymer film. The phenomenon is so robust that it can easily be reproduced at hand (using CD packaging material for example). Careful experiments show that the amplitude and wavelength of the oscillatory crack path scale lineraly with the width of the cutting tip over a wide range of lenghtscales but are independant of the width of thje sheet and the cutting speed. A simple geometric model is presented, which provides a simple but thorough interpretation of the oscillations.

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