{"id":570928,"date":"2026-03-30T15:04:20","date_gmt":"2026-03-30T15:04:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/570928\/"},"modified":"2026-03-30T15:04:20","modified_gmt":"2026-03-30T15:04:20","slug":"liquids-can-fracture-like-solids-under-extreme-stress-scientists","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/570928\/","title":{"rendered":"Liquids can fracture like solids under extreme stress: Scientists"},"content":{"rendered":"

Researchers from Drexel University have discovered that liquids can, it appears, fracture like solids under specific conditions. In a discovery that could shift our understanding of fluid mechanics, it now appears that viscous fluids can suddenly break when stretched with enough force.<\/p>\n

Unlike solids, which will stretch and eventually snap, liquids have never been believed to have a breaking point. This new research, however, appears to challenge this belief.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur findings show that if pulled apart with enough force per area, a simple liquid \u2014 a liquid that flows \u2014 will reach what we call a point of \u2018critical stress,\u2019 when it will actually fracture like a solid,\u201d said Thamires Lima, Ph.D., an assistant research professor in Drexel\u2019s College of Engineering<\/a>, who helped to lead the research.<\/p>\n

Interestingly, the team also found that the liquid \u201csnapping\u201d produces a sudden noise, like that of breaking solids. Needless to say, this was also not expected.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat we observed was so unexpected that we needed to repeat the experiments a few more times to make sure it was real,\u201d explained Nicolas Alvarez, Ph.D., a professor in the College of Engineering whose lab led the research. <\/p>\n

\u201cOnce we confirmed the phenomenon, the research became an entirely different scientific endeavor,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Liquids can break after all<\/p>\n

\u201cThis was an incredibly surprising thing to behold,\u201d Lima said. \u201cThe fracture caused a very loud snapping noise that actually startled me. I thought at first the machine had broken, but soon realized that the noise came from the stretching fluid,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

The critical element to the research is that liquids<\/a> will only break like this when pulled apart at speeds that prevent them from \u201cflowing away\u201d from stress. Like in solids, this provides enough time for stress to build up enough for a sudden fracture to form.<\/p>\n

From experimentation, the team found that liquids tend to break at around 2 megapascals of tension. The exact figure, of course, depends on the liquid\u2019s viscosity (thickness).<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

The higher the viscosity, the easier it appears it can snap. \u201cThis is likely true for all simple liquids, including common examples, such as water and oil\u2026 This fundamentally changes our understanding of fluid dynamics,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n

\u201cAlthough viscoelastic and polymer liquids \u2014 things like Oobleck or homemade slime \u2014\u00a0have demonstrated solid-like fracture behavior, simple liquids have always been thought to exhibit continuous deformation at temperatures above their glass transition and therefore would not fracture,\u201d Lima said. <\/p>\n

As for what this means for the real-world outside of a lab, it could open some interesting lines of research in various industries. \u201cShowing that viscous effects are enough to promote solid-like fracture behavior opens a world of new questions to explore in this area of scientific inquiry,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Interesting future study possibilities<\/p>\n

For example, 3D printing, which uses liquid polymers, could benefit from a better understanding of liquid fracture limits. Fiber manufacturing, which tends to stretch liquids into threads, would clearly also benefit from such insights.<\/p>\n

In medical sciences, things like blood (which are liquids) could be investigated to see if it fractures under certain conditions and find ways to avoid it. Hydraulics could also be another interesting area of study. <\/p>\n

\u201cThis suggests that many other elastic liquids might also break at a relatively similar critical stress point,\u201d Lima added. \u201cThis points to a phenomenon that is relatively chemistry independent and possibly generalizable to a wide range of liquids,\u201d she explains.<\/p>\n

Another interesting area of study could be cavitation from boat or submarine propellers, pumps, and some sonar systems. Here, tiny bubbles form and then collapse violently, which can damage metals, create shockwaves, and make noise.<\/p>\n

With a better understanding of the physics going on, it might be possible to limit or even eliminate cavitation issues in the future. <\/p>\n

\u201cNow that we have reported this unanticipated behavior, the work of fully understanding why it happens and how the behavior manifests in other liquids is an important next step,\u201d Lima said. \u201cIt will also be interesting to see how this finding may be applied to assist fiber spinning and other applications that use viscous liquids,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n

You can view the study for yourself in the journal Physical Review Letters<\/a>. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Researchers from Drexel University have discovered that liquids can, it appears, fracture like solids under specific conditions. In…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":570929,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24],"tags":[49,48,11421,15985,219641,219642,999,314,66],"class_list":{"0":"post-570928","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-physics","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-energy-amp-environment","11":"tag-inventions-and-machines","12":"tag-liquids","13":"tag-liquids-can-fracture","14":"tag-materials","15":"tag-physics","16":"tag-science"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/570928","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=570928"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/570928\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/570929"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=570928"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=570928"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=570928"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}