Wrinkling of differentially growing bilayers with similar film and substrate moduli

TL;DR

This paper investigates the nonlinear surface wrinkling behavior of bilayers with similar film and substrate moduli, focusing on how substrate growth and stiffness ratios influence pattern formation and post-critical regimes.

Contribution

It provides analytical and numerical models for understanding the critical and post-critical wrinkling behaviors in bilayers with comparable elastic properties, including the effects of substrate growth.

Findings

Rapid substrate growth can switch wrinkling modes from film to substrate dominance.

Identifies phase boundaries for different wrinkling patterns such as sinusoidal, period doubling, and creasing.

Demonstrates multi-stability in post-buckling regimes with substrate growth surpassing film growth.

Abstract

The study of growth-induced surface wrinkling in constrained bilayers comprising a thin film attached to a thick substrate is a canonical model for understanding pattern formation in many biological systems. While the bilayer model has received much prior attention, the nonlinear behaviour for arrangements with similar film and substrate properties, or substrate growth that outpaces film growth, remains poorly understood. This paper therefore focuses on these cases in which the substrate's elasticity dominates surface wrinkling. We study the critical states, and the initial and advanced post-critical behaviour of growing bilayers with film-to-substrate modulus ratios in the region of $2.5$--$50$, and cases where the substrate grows faster than the film. Based on nonlinear elasticity, we formulate analytical models for linear buckling analyses and asymptotic projections around the critical point, and use finite element (FE) models coupled to continuation and branch-switching algorithms to uncover the deep post-critical regime. It is shown that a rapidly growing substrate may change the critical mode from film-governed sinusoidal wrinkling to substrate-governed Biot wrinkling depending on the stiffness ratio and growth ratio. We present a phase change diagram of the post-critical modal landscape split into sinusoidal wrinkling, period doubling, period quadrupling, and creasing regimes in terms of the stiffness ratio and growth ratio. While the post-critical regime of film- and substrate-dominated bilayers (either in terms of dominant elasticity or growth rate) is governed by sinusoidal wrinkling and Biot creasing, respectively, the intermediate regions allow for period doubling and quadrupling bifurcations. Finally, we demonstrate the existence of multi-stability in the advanced post-buckling regimes for growing bilayers where growth in the substrate surpasses that of the film.