Pattern formation

As paste-like materials such as mud dry out, a pattern of cracks forms on the surface. Such a crack pattern is ubiquitous, but our understanding of the formation and statistical properties is not complete. We are studying the physical origin of the crack patterns using experiments and numerical simulations.

Mud crack

Cocoa crack

Numerical simulation

Related papers
  • S. Ito and S. Yukawa, Journal of the Physical Society of Japan 83, 124005 (2014)
  • S. Ito and S. Yukawa, Physical Review E 90, 042909 (2014)