CAREER: Understanding Fracture Propagation in Soft Viscoelastic Materials from Slow to Ultra-high Strain Rates and at Different Temperatures

This Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) award will support fundamental research focused on investigating fracture propagation in soft viscoelastic materials under a broad range of loading rates, from quasistatic to high-strain rates, and varying temperature conditions. Soft viscoelastic materials, such as polymers, hydrogels, and biological tissues, are integral to engineering and biomedical applications. However, their fracture behavior remains insufficiently understood, particularly under extreme loading rates and temperatures. Current fracture models primarily address slow-loading regimes, failing to capture the nonlinear, rate- and temperature-dependent fracture processes these materials undergo. Additionally, fractures under ultra-high strain rates often exhibit complex three-dimensional crack morphologies that diverge from conventional 2D or symmetric 3D models. This research project intends to develop integrated experimental and computational methods to bridge these gaps, providing a comprehensive, quantitative understanding of dynamic fracture behavior in soft materials. The results of this research look to have significant interdisciplinary impact, advancing mechanical and biomedical engineering fields, and contributing to applications in protective materials, soft robotics, and tissue engineering. Additionally, this CAREER project will provide research opportunities, curriculum development, a student symposium, K-12 outreach, and industrial and medical collaborations. The objective of this CAREER project is to develop innovative full-field experimental techniques and a unified theoretical and computational framework to understand fracture mechanics and material failure in nonlinear viscoelastic materials across diverse loading conditions. This project will introduce new 2D and 3D full-field deformation measurement techniques to quantitatively analyze fracture propagation at varying strain rates and temperatures. Experimental approaches will include quasistatic fracture tests, needle-induced cavitation, and laser-induced inertial cavitation experiments, with high-resolution full-field deformation measurements captured via 2D Digital Image Correlation (DIC) and 3D Digital Volume Correlation (DVC). These experimental datasets will inform the creation of a comprehensive theoretical and computational framework that integrates low-rate and high-rate fracture phenomena. The findings will enable more accurate predictions of soft material failure, advancing critical applications in advanced manufacturing, biomedical device design, and structural materials for extreme environments. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.