Y-shaped cutting measures fracture-relevant length scales and energies in soft materials. Previous apparatuses were designed for benchtop measurements. This protocol describes the fabrication and use of an apparatus that orients the setup horizontally and provides the fine positioning capabilities necessary for in situ viewing, plus failure quantification, via an optical microscope.
Guerena, M., Peng, J., Schmid, M., Walsh, C., Zhan, S., Hutchens, S. B. Performing Microscope-Mounted Y-Shaped Cutting Tests. J. Vis. Exp. (191), e64546, doi:10.3791/64546 (2023).