As the energy density of lithium-ion cells and batteries increases, controlling the outcomes of thermal runaway becomes more challenging. If the high rate of gas generation during thermal runaway is not adequately vented, commercial cell designs can rupture and explode, presenting serious safety concerns. Here, ultra-high-speed synchrotron X-ray imaging is used at >20 000 frames per second to c...

We have used temperature-dependent single molecule force spectroscopy to stretch covalently anchored carboxymethylated amylose (CMA) polymers attached to an amino-functionalized AFM cantilever. Using an Arrhenius kinetics model based on a Morse potential as a one-dimensional representation of covalent bonds, we have extracted kinetic and structural parameters of the bond rupture process. With 3...

The time history of energy release during earthquakes illuminates the process of failure, which remains enigmatic for events deeper than about 100 kilometers. Stacks of teleseismic records from regional arrays for 122 intermediate (depths of 100 to 350 kilometers) and deep (depths of 350 to 700 kilometers) earthquakes show that the temporal pattern of short-period seismic radiation has a system...

[1] Tsunami earthquakes, shallow events that produce larger tsunamis than expected given their surface wave magnitudes (Ms), typically have long durations and a source spectrum depleted in short period energy. Seven cases of underthrusting tsunami earthquakes provide information on the rupture processes, but little constraint on geographic distribution or frequency. We compare their rupture cha...

resulting in decreased energy consumption and increased Experiments were performed to study bitumen film rupture and bitumen recovery, is the impetus for undertaking a systemdisplacement on model surfaces. Bitumen film on a glass plate atic study of the mechanisms involved in oil–water displacewas found to thin down and rupture in the presence of water ment on a solid surface. Such mechanistic ...

In this communication, we report on the use of ultrafast electron diffraction to determine structural dynamics of excited states and reaction products of isolated aromatic carbonyls, acetophenone and benzaldehyde. For a 266 nm excitation, a bifurcation of pathways is structurally resolved, one leading to the formation of the triplet state (quinoid structure) and another to chemical products: fo...

Background: Bilateral rupture of the patellar tendon is a very rare injury, which takes place in relation to chronic systemic diseases. These injuries are known causes. Some of these causes are particular in patellar tendon rupture and another are in quadriceps tendon rupture. Case presentation: 70-year-old diabetic man with simultaneous bilateral patellar tendon disruption of proximal inser...

The fracture of materials is a catastrophic phenomenon of considerable technological and scientific importance. Here, we analysed experiments designed for industrial applications in order to test the concept that, in heterogeneous materials such as fiber composites, rocks, concrete under compression and materials with large distributed residual stresses, rupture is a genuine critical point, i.e...

Most of our understanding of earthquake rupture comes from interpretation of strongground-motion seismograms; however, near-rupture-tip fields of stress and particle motions are difficult to resolve. In particular, the decay of frictional resistance from a peak value at the leading tip of the rupture to a residual kinetic value and subsequent healing characterizes the earthquake process, yet th...

The fracture of materials is a catastrophic phenomenon of considerable technological and scientific importance. Here, we analysed experiments designed for industrial applications in order to test the concept that, in heterogeneous materials such as fiber composites, rocks, concrete under compression and materials with large distributed residual stresses, rupture is a genuine critical point, i.e...