Fragmentation of solids and fluids

The fragmentation of solids and liquids is a very broad and complex field. Experiments often involve small time and length scales, making research challenging. There exist many situations and applications where fragmentation plays an important role, such as drug manufacturing/delivery, mining, spray painting, firefighting and agriculture. Almost always the average fragment size and the fragment size distribution are important characteristics. For instance in agriculture, the drop size plays and essential role in pest control. For the spraying of fungicides and pesticides, small droplets are prone to airborne drift, therefore posing a serious environmental hazard, while droplets that are too big, will bounce of the crops and will not provide a good coverage needed for an effective treatment. In this thesis multiple topics on fragmentation are covered, including the fragmentation of unstressed/stressed glass, ultrasonic nebulizers, the breakup of liquid jets and the formation of sprays. For all these topics, the main question answered is: what determines the fragment size and size distribution?