title: Crumpling a thin sheet.
abstract: Crumpled sheets have a surprisingly large resistance to further compression. We have studied the crumpling of thin sheets of Mylar under different loading conditions. When placed under a fixed compressive force, the size of a crumpled material decreases logarithmically in time for periods up to three weeks. We also find hysteretic behavior when measuring the compression as a function of applied force. By using a pretreating protocol, we control this hysteresis and find reproducible scaling behavior for the size of the crumpled material as a function of the applied force.
authors.affiliation: The James Franck Institute and The Department of Physics, The University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois 60637, USA.
authors.forename: Kittiwit
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Matan
authors.forename: Rachel B
authors.initials: RB
authors.lastname: Williams
authors.forename: Thomas A
authors.initials: TA
authors.lastname: Witten
authors.forename: Sidney R
authors.initials: SR
authors.lastname: Nagel