We report the observation of a Plateau instability in a thin filament of solid gel with a very small elastic modulus. A longitudinal undulation of the surface of the cylinder reduces its area thereby triggering capillary instability, but is counterbalanced by elastic forces following the deformation. This competition leads to a nontrivial instability threshold for a solid cylinder. The ratio of surface tension to elastic modulus defines a characteristic length scale. The onset of linear instability is when the radius of the cylinder is one-sixth of this length scale, in agreement with theory presented here.
We demonstrate the instability of the free surface of a soft elastic solid facing downwards. Experiments are carried out using a gel of constant density ρ, shear modulus µ, put in a rigid cylindrical dish of depth h. When turned upside down, the free surface of the gel undergoes a normal outgoing acceleration g. It remains perfectly flat for ρgh/µ < α * with α * 6, whereas a steady pattern spontaneously appears in the opposite case. This phenomenon results from the interplay between the gravitational energy and the elastic energy of deformation, which reduces the Rayleigh waves celerity and vanishes it at the threshold.
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