Physics (Internal)

Wrinkling, folding and crumpling of thin elastic sheets

This event is part of the Biophysics/Condensed Matter Seminar Series.

Abstract: Under the action of external forces, thin sheets tend to bend out of plane rather than stretch. For weak forcing, this leads to the distinctive wrinkling instabilities that you see on your skin. When more strongly confined, sheets crumple, and condense stress into a network of ridges which confer rigidity on the bulk material. At even stronger forcing, ridges develop into plastic creases which lead to complex time-dependent mechanical properties. I will describe experiments that study various aspects of this progression of features, concentrating on the wrinkling patterns seen in ultrathin polymer films.