Self-Healing Slip Pulses along a Gel/Glass Interface

Abstract

We present experimental evidence of self-healing shear cracks at a gel/glass interface. This system exhibits two dynamical regimes depending on the driving velocity: steady sliding at high velocity (>V(c) approximately 100--125 microm/s), characterized by a shear-thinning rheology, and periodic stick-slip dynamics at low velocity. In this last regime, slip occurs by propagation of pulses that restick via a "healing instability" occurring when the local sliding velocity reaches the macroscopic transition velocity V(c). At driving velocities close below V(c), the system exhibits complex spatiotemporal behavior.