Elastic sheet on a liquid drop reveals wrinkling and crumpling as distinct symmetry-breaking instabilities.

ABSTRACT: Smooth wrinkles and sharply crumpled regions are familiar motifs in biological or synthetic sheets, such as rapidly growing plant leaves and crushed foils. Previous studies have addressed both morphological types, but the generic route whereby a featureless sheet develops a complex shape remains elusive. Here we show that this route proceeds through an unusual sequence of distinct symmetry-breaking instabilities. The object of our study is an ultrathin circular sheet stretched over a liquid drop. As the curvature is gradually increased, the surface tension stretching the sheet over the drop causes compression along circles of latitude. The compression is relieved first by a transition into a wrinkle pattern, and then into a crumpled state via a continuous transition. Our data provide concl

SUBMITTER: King H 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3382559 | biostudies-literature | 2012 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature