Sudden ridge collapse in the stress relaxation of thin crumpled polymer films.
A crumpled thin sheet generally exhibits numerous defects each of which store energy. When subjected to a constant compressive force the height of the crumple decreases logarithmically with time in a process of long-term stress relaxation, which scales over several orders of magnitude-i.e., over time periods from seconds to weeks. We have investigated this scaling behavior for thin polymer films and found that a discontinuous stress relaxation is superimposed on the long-term stress relaxation. The former becomes more pronounced as the polymer sheet thickness increases and is systematically characterized in this study. Effects of ridge length and density are discussed.
Dierking
Ingo
I
School of Physics and Astronomy, University of Manchester, Schuster Building, Oxford Road, Manchester M13 9PL, United Kingdom. ingo.dierking@manchester.ac.uk
Archer
Paul
P