Wrinkling reveals a new isometry of pressurized elastic shells

Journal article

We consider the point indentation of a pressurized, spherical elastic shell. Previously it was shown that such shells wrinkle once the indentation reaches a threshold value. Here, we study the behaviour of this system beyond the onset of instability. We show that rather than simply approaching the classical "mirror-buckled" shape, the wrinkled shell approaches a new, universal shape that reflects a nontrivial type of isometry. For a given indentation depth, this "asymptotic isometry", which is only made possible by wrinkling, is reached in the doubly asymptotic limit of weak pressure and vanishing shell thickness.

Authors: Vella, D; Ebrahimi, H; Vaziri, A; Davidovitch, B

• Publication status: Published
• Peer review status: Peer reviewed
• Publisher: European Physical Society
• Journal: Europhysics Letters: a letters journal exploring the frontiers of physics
• Volume: 112
• Issue: 2
• Publication date: 2015-11-09
• DOI: 10.1209/0295-5075/112/24007
• EISSN: 1286-4854
• ISSN: 0295-5075