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Capillarity Driven Instability of a Soft Solid

2010; American Physical Society; Volume: 105; Issue: 21 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1103/physrevlett.105.214301

1092-0145

Serge Mora, Ty Phou, Jean-Marc Fromental, L. M. Pismen, Yves Pomeau,

Pickering emulsions and particle stabilization

We report the observation of a Plateau instability in a thin filament of solid gel with a very small elastic modulus. A longitudinal undulation of the surface of the cylinder reduces its area thereby triggering capillary instability, but is counterbalanced by elastic forces following the deformation. This competition leads to a nontrivial instability threshold for a solid cylinder. The ratio of surface tension to elastic modulus defines a characteristic length scale. The onset of linear instability is when the radius of the cylinder is one-sixth of this length scale, in agreement with theory presented here.