The inhibiting effect of a sharp edge on liquid spreading is well observed during drop interaction with textured surfaces. On groove-textured solid surfaces comprising unidirectional parallel grooves, the edge effect of posts results in the squeezing of drop liquid in the direction perpendicular to the grooves and the stretching of drop liquid along the grooves leading to anisotropy in drop flow, popularly known as wetting anisotropy which has been employed in several engineering applications. A recent study observed that the energy loss incurring at the edges of posts via contact angle hysteresis is primarily responsible for the anisotropic spreading of impacting drops on groove-textured surfaces. The present study aims to elucidate the role of edges on the spreading and receding dynamics of water drops. The experiments of drop impact are carried out on semi-infinite rectangular post comprising a pair of parallel 90-deg edges separated by a distance (post width) comparable to the diameter of impacting drop. The equilibrium shape of drops on the semi-infinite rectangular post is analyzed using open source computational tool Surface Evolver to optimize the ratio of initial droplet diameter to post width. Quantitative measurements of drop impact dynamics on semi-infinite rectangular posts are deduced by analysing high speed videos of impact process captured under three different camera views during experiments. Based on the role of post edges on impacting drops, different regimes of the impacting drops are characterized in terms of drop Weber number and the ratio of diameter of impacting drop to post width. Characteristic features of impact dynamics in each of the regimes are identified and discussed. It is seen that edges play a pivotal role on all stages of impact dynamics regardless of Weber number. Impacts in the regime of completely pinned drops on narrow posts are further analyzed to reveal characteristics of post-spreading oscillations.

The investigation of failure in brittle materials, subjected to dynamic transient loading conditions, represents one of the ongoing challenges in the mechanics community. Progresses on this front are required to support the design of engineering components which are employed in applications involving extreme operational regimes. To this purpose, this thesis is devoted to the development of a framework which provides the capabilities to model how crack patterns form and evolve in brittle materials and how they affect the quantitative description of failure. The proposed model is developed within the context of diffusive interfaces which are at the basis of a new class of theories named phase field models. In this work, a set of additional features is proposed to expand their domain of applicability to the modelling of (i) rate and (ii) pressure dependent effects. The path towards the achievement of the first goal has been traced on the desire to account for micro-inertia effects associated with high rates of loading. Pressure dependency has been addressed by postulating a mode-of-failure transition law whose scaling depends upon the local material triaxiality. The governing equations have been derived within a thermodynamically-consistent framework supplemented by the employment of a micro-forces balance approach. The numerical implementation has been carried out within an updated lagrangian finite element scheme with explicit time integration. A series of benchmarks will be provided to appraise the model capabilities in predicting rate-pressure-dependent crack initiation and propagation. Results will be compared against experimental evidences which closely resemble the boundary value problems examined in this work. Concurrently, the design and optimization of a complimentary, improved, experimental characterization platform, based on the split Hopkinson pressure bar, will be presented as a mean for further validation and calibration.