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arXiv · 1503.05030

Nonlinear buckling and symmetry breaking of a soft elastic sheet sliding on a cylindrical substrate

Norbert Stoop·Martin Michael Müller
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Abstract

We consider the axial compression of a thin sheet wrapped around a rigid cylindrical substrate. In contrast to the wrinkling-to-fold transitions exhibited in similar systems, we find that the sheet always buckles into a single symmetric fold, while periodic solutions are unstable. Upon further compression, the solution breaks symmetry and stabilizes into a recumbent fold. Using linear analysis and numerics, we theoretically predict the buckling force and energy as a function of the compressive displacement. We compare our theory to experiments employing cylindrical neoprene sheets and find remarkably good agreement.

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Norbert Stoop, Martin Michael Müller. 2015-03-17. Nonlinear buckling and symmetry breaking of a soft elastic sheet sliding on a cylindrical substrate. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijnonlinmec.2015.02.013

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