Elastic Rayleigh-Plateau instability: Dynamical selection of nonlinear states

Anupam Pandey, Minkush Kansal, Miguel A. Herrada, Jens Eggers, Jacco H. Snoeijer

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

9 Scopus citations

Abstract

A slender thread of elastic hydrogel is susceptible to a surface instability that is reminiscent of the classical Rayleigh-Plateau instability of liquid jets. The final, highly nonlinear states that are observed in experiments arise from a competition between capillarity and large elastic deformations. Combining a slender analysis and fully three-dimensional numerical simulations, we present the phase map of all possible morphologies for an unstable neo-Hookean cylinder subjected to capillary forces. Interestingly, for softer cylinders we find the coexistence of two distinct configurations, namely, cylinders-on-a-string and beads-on-a-string. It is shown that for a given set of parameters, the final pattern is selected via a dynamical evolution. To capture this, we compute the dispersion relation and determine the characteristic wavelength of the dynamically selected profiles. The validity of the "slender"results is confirmed via simulations and these results are consistent with experiments on elastic and viscoelastic threads.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)5148-5161
Number of pages14
JournalSoft Matter
Volume17
Issue number20
DOIs
StatePublished - May 28 2021
Externally publishedYes

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • General Chemistry
  • Condensed Matter Physics

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