Far From Threshold Buckling Analysis of Thin Films

TL;DR

This paper investigates the buckling behavior of ultrathin films, revealing significant differences between near-threshold buckling and far-from-threshold wrinkle patterns, challenging standard theories.

Contribution

It provides a detailed analysis of far-from-threshold buckling in thin films, highlighting deviations from classical buckling predictions in ultrathin materials.

Findings

Wrinkle patterns are longer than predicted by standard buckling theory.

Scaling laws for wrinkle extent differ significantly from near-threshold predictions.

Ultrathin sheets exhibit distinct buckling behavior far from threshold.

Abstract

Thin films buckle easily and form wrinkled states in regions of well defined size. The extent of a wrinkled region is typically assumed to reflect the zone of in-plane compressive stresses prior to buckling, but recent experiments on ultrathin sheets have shown that wrinkling patterns are significantly longer and follow different scaling laws than those predicted by standard buckling theory. Here we focus on a simple setup to show the striking differences between near-threshold buckling and the analysis of wrinkle patterns in very thin films, which are typically far from threshold.