Plastic Deformation of 2D Crumpled Wires

TL;DR

This study explores how plastic deformation affects the hierarchical structures formed by crumpled wires in a 2D cavity, revealing that scaling laws persist despite irreversibility and large deformations.

Contribution

It introduces experimental analysis of plastic wires in 2D crumpling, demonstrating the persistence of scaling laws under plastic deformation.

Findings

Scaling laws hold despite plasticity and irreversibility

Plastic wires transition from circular to oblate shapes under strain

Hierarchical structures are formed even with plastic deformation

Abstract

When a single long piece of elastic wire is injected trough channels into a confining two-dimensional cavity, a complex structure of hierarchical loops is formed. In the limit of maximum packing density, these structures are described by several scaling laws. In this paper it is investigated this packing process but using plastic wires which give origin to completely irreversible structures of different morphology. In particular, it is studied experimentally the plastic deformation from circular to oblate configurations of crumpled wires, obtained by the application of an axial strain. Among other things, it is shown that in spite of plasticity, irreversibility, and very large deformations, scaling is still observed.