Dynamics of wrinkling in ultrathin elastic sheets

Abstract

The wrinkling of thin elastic objects provides a means of generating regular patterning at small scales in applications ranging from photovoltaics to microfluidic devices. Static wrinkle patterns are known to be governed by an energetic balance between the object's bending stiffness and an effective substrate stiffness, which may originate from a true substrate stiffness or from tension and curvature along the wrinkles. Here we investigate dynamic wrinkling, induced by the impact of a solid sphere onto an ultra-thin polymer sheet floating on water. The vertical deflection of the sheet's centre induced by impact draws material radially inwards, resulting in an azimuthal compression that is relieved by the wrinkling of the entire sheet. We show that this wrinkling is truly dynamic, exhibiting features that are qualitatively different to those seen in quasi-static wrinkling experiments. Moreover, we show that the wrinkles coarsen dynamically because of the inhibiting effect of the fluid inertia. This dynamic coarsening can be understood heuristically as the result of a dynamic stiffness, which dominates the static stiffnesses reported thus far, and allows new controls of wrinkle wavelength.

8 pages, 4 figures. Please see published version for supplementary movies and SI Appendix

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Cited by in corpus (9)

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• Boundary Curvature Effect on the Wrinkling of Thin Suspended Films
• Impact on floating thin elastic sheets: A mathematical model
• Parametric excitation of wrinkles in elastic sheets on elastic and viscoelastic substrates
• Pressure-driven wrinkling of soft inner-lined tubes
• Fluttering-induced flow in a closed chamber
• Elastic fingering in a rotating Hele-Shaw cell
• Wrinkling and imaging of thin curved sheets
• Hysteretic wavelength selection in isometric, unsupported radial wrinkling