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Smooth Cascade of Wrinkles at the Edge of a Floating Elastic Film

Jiangshui Huang, Benny Davidovitch, Christian D. Santangelo, Thomas P. Russell, and Narayanan Menon
Phys. Rev. Lett. 105, 038302 – Published 14 July 2010
Physics logo See Synopsis: Ironing out the wrinkles

Abstract

An ultrathin polymer sheet floating on a fluid forms a periodic pattern of parallel wrinkles when subjected to uniaxial compression. The wave number of the wrinkle pattern increases sharply near the fluid meniscus where the translational symmetry of this one-dimensional corrugated profile is broken. We show that the observed multiscale morphology is controlled by a new “softness” number that quantifies the relative strength of capillary forces at the edge and the rigidity of the bulk pattern. We discover a new elastic cascade by which the wrinkling pattern in the bulk is smoothly matched to the fine structure at the edge by a discrete series of higher Fourier modes.

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  • Received 26 October 2009

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.105.038302

©2010 American Physical Society

Synopsis

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Ironing out the wrinkles

Published 14 July 2010

Experiments with thin films show what factors control wrinkling and folding.

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Authors & Affiliations

Jiangshui Huang1,2, Benny Davidovitch1, Christian D. Santangelo1, Thomas P. Russell2, and Narayanan Menon1

  • 1Department of Physics, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, Massachusetts 01003, USA
  • 2Polymer Science and Engineering Department, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, Massachusetts 01003, USA

See Also

Draping Films: A Wrinkle to Fold Transition

Douglas P. Holmes and Alfred J. Crosby
Phys. Rev. Lett. 105, 038303 (2010)

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Issue

Vol. 105, Iss. 3 — 16 July 2010

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