Benoît ROMAN : Physics of Tearing : what determines the shape of torn paper?

Abstract : We all have a very extensive experience of tearing (ie fracture propagation in thin sheets when large bending occurs)

We all have developed empirical intuition on how to control the trajectory of fracture, so that we can cut a paper sheet along a desired path (using a ruler for example) I will show that tearing is very challenging for fracture mechanics theory.

But using drastic assumptions, we can revisit several tearing configurations inspired from everyday life, and show how fracture trajectory can be rationalised using simple geometric arguments.

Biography :B. Roman obtained PHD in Marseille University, postdoc in U Texas at Austin, and in U. Santiago de Chile. He is CNRS researcher in PMMH (Paris) and is interested  on instabilities in the mechanics of thin plastic sheets (buckling, crumpling, tearing) and more recently on the programming of active shape-morphing sheets.