Smooth Cascade of Wrinkles at the Edge of a Floating Elastic Film (original) (raw)

Wrinkles and folds in a fluid-supported sheet of finite size

A laterally confined thin elastic sheet lying on a liquid substrate displays regular undulations, called wrinkles, characterized by a spatially extended energy distribution and a well-defined wavelength λ. As the confinement increases, the deformation energy is progressively localized into a single narrow fold. An exact solution for the deformation of an infinite sheet was previously found, indicating that wrinkles in an infinite sheet are unstable against localization for arbitrarily small confinement. We present an extension of the theory to sheets of finite length L, accounting for the experimentally observed wrinkle-to-fold transition. We derive an exact solution for the periodic deformation in the wrinkled state, and an approximate solution for the localized, folded state. We find that a second-order transition between these two states occurs at a critical confinement F = λ 2 /L.

Prototypical model for tensional wrinkling in thin sheets

The buckling and wrinkling of thin films has recently seen a surge of interest among physicists, biologists, mathematicians, and engineers. This activity has been triggered by the growing interest in developing technologies at ever-decreasing scales and the resulting necessity to control the mechanics of tiny structures, as well as by the realization that morphogenetic processes, such as the tissue-shaping instabilities occurring in animal epithelia or plant leaves, often emerge from mechanical instabilities of cell sheets. Although the most basic buckling instability of uniaxially compressed plates was understood by Euler more than two centuries ago, recent experiments on nanometrically thin (ultrathin) films have shown significant deviations from predictions of standard buckling theory. Motivated by this puzzle, we introduce here a theoretical model that allows for a systematic analysis of wrinkling in sheets far from their instability threshold. We focus on the simplest extension of Euler buckling that exhibits wrinkles of finite length-a sheet under axisymmetric tensile loads. The first study of this geometry, which is attributed to Lamé, allows us to construct a phase diagram that demonstrates the dramatic variation of wrinkling patterns from near-threshold to far-from-threshold conditions. Theoretical arguments and comparison to experiments show that the thinner the sheet is, the smaller is the compressive load above which the far-from-threshold regime emerges. This observation emphasizes the relevance of our analysis for nanomechanics applications.

Wrinkling Hierarchy in Constrained Thin Sheets from Suspended Graphene to Curtains

We show that thin sheets under boundary confinement spontaneously generate a universal self-similar hierarchy of wrinkles. From simple geometry arguments and energy scalings, we develop a formalism based on wrinklons, the localized transition zone in the merging of two wrinkles, as building blocks of the global pattern. Contrary to the case of crumpled paper where elastic energy is focused, this transition is described as smooth in agreement with a recent numerical work [R. D. Schroll, E. Katifori, and B. Davidovitch, Phys. Rev. Lett. 106, 074301 (2011)]. This formalism is validated from hundreds of nanometers for graphene sheets to meters for ordinary curtains, which shows the universality of our description. We finally describe the effect of an external tension to the distribution of the wrinkles.

Wrinkling of a stretched thin sheet

Journal of Elasticity, 2011

When a thin rectangular sheet is clamped along two opposing edges and stretched, its inability to accommodate the Poisson contraction near the clamps may lead to the formation of wrinkles with crests and troughs parallel to the axis of stretch. A variational model for this phenomenon is proposed. The relevant energy functional includes bending and membranal contributions, the latter depending explicitly on the applied stretch. Motivated by work of Cerda, Ravi-Chandar, and Mahadevan, the functional is minimized subject to a global kinematical constraint on the area of the mid-surface of the sheet. Analysis of a boundary-value problem for the ensuing Euler-Lagrange equation shows that wrinkled solutions exist only above a threshold of the applied stretch. A sequence of critical values of the applied stretch, each element of which corresponds to a discrete number of wrinkles, is determined. Whenever the applied stretch is sufficiently large to induce more than three wrinkles, previously proposed scaling relations for the wrinkle wavelength and, modulo a multiplicative factor that depends on the Poisson ratio of the sheet and the applied stretch and arises from the more general and weaker nature of geometric constraint under consideration, root-mean-square amplitude are confirmed. In contrast to the scaling relations for the wrinkle wavelength and amplitude, the applied stretch required to induce any number of wrinkles depends on the in-plane aspect ratio of the sheet. When the sheet is significantly longer than it is wide, the critical stretch scales with the fourth power of the length-to-width Dedicated to the memory of Donald E. Carlson, whose insight and clarity of thought were exceeded only by his modesty and generosity.

Formation of high aspect ratio wrinkles and ridges on elastic bilayers with small thickness contrast

Soft Matter

An elastic bilayer composed of a stiff film bonded to a soft substrate forms wrinkles under compression. Experiments and finite element simulations reveal that at small thickness contrast, secondary bifurcations such as period doubling are delayed, providing access to high aspect ratio wrinkles. For high modulus contrast, the periodic wrinkles can evolve into a regular pattern of ridges with even higher aspect ratio.

Wrinkling of a bilayer membrane

Physical Review E, 2007

The buckling of elastic bodies is a common phenomenon in the mechanics of solids. Wrinkling of membranes can often be interpreted as buckling under constraints that prohibit large-amplitude deformation. We present a combination of analytic calculations, experiments, and simulations to understand wrinkling patterns generated in a bilayer membrane. The model membrane is composed of a flexible spherical shell that is under tension and that is circumscribed by a stiff, essentially incompressible strip with bending modulus B. When the tension is reduced sufficiently to a value , the strip forms wrinkles with a uniform wavelength found theoretically and experimentally to be =2͑B / ͒ 1/3 . Defects in this pattern appear for rapid changes in tension. Comparison between experiment and simulation further shows that, with larger reduction of tension, a second generation of wrinkles with longer wavelength appears only when B is sufficiently small.

Mechanics of large folds in thin interfacial films

Physical Review E, 2014

A thin film at a liquid interface responds to uniaxial confinement by wrinkling and then by folding; its shape and energy have been computed exactly before self contact. Here, we address the mechanics of large folds, i.e. folds that absorb a length much larger than the wrinkle wavelength. With scaling arguments and numerical simulations, we show that the antisymmetric fold is energetically favorable and can absorb any excess length at zero pressure. Then, motivated by puzzles arising in the comparison of this simple model to experiments on lipid monolayers and capillary rafts, we discuss how to incorporate film weight, selfadhesion and energy dissipation.

Post-wrinkle bifurcations in elastic bilayers with modest contrast in modulus

Extreme Mechanics Letters

Wrinkles, folds, creases and other elastic surface instabilities play a crucial role in many systems in nature and engineering. While surface instabilities of ideal bilayer structures with large contrasts in elastic stiffness are well understood, many natural and man-made structures are far from this ideal. To better understand the behavior of systems with modest stiffness contrast, in particular their secondary post-wrinkling bifurcations, we systematically vary the modulus contrast between the film and the substrate through a combination of experiments and finite element simulations. Above a modulus contrast of about 2, but below approximately 14, wrinkles represent the primary bifurcation mode, but can undergo two distinct types of secondary bifurcations upon further compression: (1) a direct transition from wrinkles to creases, and (2) wrinkles that first undergo period doubling, followed by a transition to creases.

Nonperturbative model for wrinkling in highly bendable sheets

Physical Review E, 2012

The wrinkled geometry of thin films is known to vary appreciably as the applied stresses exceed their buckling threshold. Here we derive and analyze a minimal, nonperturbative set of equations that captures the continuous evolution of radial wrinkles in the simplest axisymmetric geometry from threshold to the far-from-threshold limit, where the compressive stress collapses. This description of the growth of wrinkles is different from the traditional post-buckling approach and is expected to be valid for highly bendable sheets. Numerical analysis of our model predicts two surprising results. First, the number of wrinkles scales anomalously with the thickness of the sheet and the exerted load, in apparent contradiction with previous predictions. Second, there exists an invariant quantity that characterizes the mutual variation of the amplitude and number of wrinkles from threshold to the far-from-threshold regime.