Transition from wave turbulence to dynamical crumpling in vibrated elastic plates

TL;DR

This paper investigates the transition from wave turbulence to dynamical crumpling in vibrated elastic plates through experiments and simulations, revealing how increased forcing leads to singular structures and intermittency.

Contribution

It provides new insights into the nonlinear regimes of vibrated elastic plates, especially the emergence of singular structures and their impact on turbulence spectra.

Findings

Weak turbulence matches theory at low forcing

Strong forcing creates singular structures like folds and D-cones

Intermittency emerges at large scales due to singular structures

Abstract

We study the dynamical regime of wave turbulence of a vibrated thin elastic plate based on experimental and numerical observations. We focus our study to the strongly non linear regime described in a previous letter by N. Yokoyama & M. Takaoka. At small forcing, a weakly non linear regime is compatible with the Weak Turbulence Theory when the dissipation is localized at high wavenumber. When the forcing intensity is increased, a strongly non linear regime emerges: singular structures dominate the dynamics at large scale whereas at small scales the weak turbulence is still present. A turbulence of singular structures, with folds and D-cones, develops that alters significantly the energy spectra and causes the emergence of intermittency.