Adhesion-induced instabilities and pattern formation in thin films of elastomers and gels

A hydrostatically stressed soft elastic film circumvents the imposed constraint by undergoing a morphological instability, the wavelength of which is dictated by the minimization of the surface and the elastic strain energies of the film. While for a single film, the wavelength is entirely dependent...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published inThe European physical journal. E, Soft matter and biological physics Vol. 38; no. 7; p. 82
Main Authors Chaudhury, Manoj K., Chakrabarti, Aditi, Ghatak, Animangsu
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Berlin/Heidelberg Springer Berlin Heidelberg 01.07.2015
Subjects
Biological and Medical Physics
Biophysics
Colloquium
Complex Fluids and Microfluidics
Complex Systems
Nanotechnology
Physics
Physics and Astronomy
Polymer Sciences
Soft and Granular Matter
Surfaces and Interfaces
Thin Films
Soft Matter: Interfacial Phenomena and Nanostructured Surfaces
Online AccessGet full text

Cover

More Information
Summary:A hydrostatically stressed soft elastic film circumvents the imposed constraint by undergoing a morphological instability, the wavelength of which is dictated by the minimization of the surface and the elastic strain energies of the film. While for a single film, the wavelength is entirely dependent on its thickness, a co-operative energy minimization dictates that the wavelength depends on both the elastic moduli and thicknesses of two contacting films. The wavelength can also depend on the material properties of a film if its surface tension has a pronounced effect in comparison to its elasticity. When such a confined film is subjected to a continually increasing normal displacement, the morphological patterns evolve into cracks, which, in turn, govern the adhesive fracture behavior of the interface. While, in general, the thickness provides the relevant length scale underlying the well-known Griffith-Kendall criterion of debonding of a rigid disc from a confined film, it is modified non-trivially by the elasto-capillary number for an ultra-soft film. Depending upon the degree of confinement and the spatial distribution of external stress, various analogs of the canonical instability patterns in liquid systems can also be reproduced with thin confined elastic films. Graphical abstract
Bibliography:ObjectType-Article-1
SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1
ObjectType-Feature-2
content type line 23
ISSN:1292-8941
1292-895X
DOI:10.1140/epje/i2015-15082-7