Abstract
The surfaces of growing biological tissues, swelling gels, and compressed rubbers do not remain smooth, but frequently exhibit highly localized inward folds. We reveal the morphology of this surface folding in a novel experimental setup, which permits to deform the surface of a soft gel in a controlled fashion. The interface first forms a sharp furrow, whose tip size decreases rapidly with deformation. Above a critical deformation, the furrow bifurcates to an inward folded crease of vanishing tip size. We show experimentally and numerically that both creases and furrows exhibit a universal cusp-shape, whose width scales like y 3/2 at a distance y from the tip. We provide a similarity theory that captures the singular profiles before and after the self-folding bifurcation, and derive the length of the fold from large deformation elasticity.
Original language | English |
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Article number | 198001 |
Number of pages | 5 |
Journal | Physical Review Letters |
Volume | 119 |
Issue number | 19 |
Early online date | 7 Nov 2017 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - 10 Nov 2017 |
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Dive into the research topics of 'Cusp-Shaped Elastic Creases and Furrows'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.Profiles
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Professor Jens G Eggers
- Cabot Institute for the Environment
- School of Mathematics - Professor of Applied Mathematics
- Fluids and materials
- Applied Mathematics
Person: Academic , Member