Wrinkling of a bilayered cylinder under tension

Abstract

We study near-surface tension instabilities in bilayered cylinders composed of an incompressible core coated with a thin compressible film. In theory, circumferential wrinkles with axial wavefronts may appear on the outer surface when the cylinder is stretched. We analyze these instabilities through modelling, numerics, finite element simulations, and controlled experiments. We show that the wrinkle amplitude and wavelength depend on the Poisson ratio of the coating and the ratio of the film and substrate shear moduli. We find that the lower the film's Poisson ratio, the earlier the wrinkles emerge under tension. This observation motivates us to use auxetic films (with negative Poisson ratios) with bespoke microstructures in the finite element simulations and the experiments. For the latter, we fabricated 3D-printed soft cylinders with stiff auxetic outer layers and subjected them to axial loading. Although simulations predicted clear wrinkle formation, experimental observation proved more elusive due to the small amplitude of the wrinkles.