Jove
Visualize
Contact Us
JoVE
x logofacebook logolinkedin logoyoutube logo
ABOUT JoVE
OverviewLeadershipBlogJoVE Help Center
AUTHORS
Publishing ProcessEditorial BoardScope & PoliciesPeer ReviewFAQSubmit
LIBRARIANS
TestimonialsSubscriptionsAccessResourcesLibrary Advisory BoardFAQ
RESEARCH
JoVE JournalMethods CollectionsJoVE Encyclopedia of ExperimentsArchive
EDUCATION
JoVE CoreJoVE BusinessJoVE Science EducationJoVE Lab ManualFaculty Resource CenterFaculty Site
Terms & Conditions of Use
Privacy Policy
Policies

Related Experiment Videos

Forced crumpling of self-avoiding elastic sheets.

G A Vliegenthart1, G Gompper

  • 1Institut für Festkörperforschung, Forschungszentrum Jülich, D-52425 Jülich, Germany. g.vliegenthart@fz-juelich.de

Nature Materials
|February 8, 2006
PubMed
Summary
This summary is machine-generated.

Related Concept Videos

You might also read

Related Articles

Articles linked to this work by shared authors, journal, and citation graph.

Sort by
Same author

Reconstruction of the three-dimensional beat pattern underlying swimming behaviors of sperm.

The European physical journal. E, Soft matter·2021
Same author

The steering gaits of sperm.

Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences·2019
Same author

Nano- and microparticles at fluid and biological interfaces.

Journal of physics. Condensed matter : an Institute of Physics journal·2017
Same author

Physics of microswimmers--single particle motion and collective behavior: a review.

Reports on progress in physics. Physical Society (Great Britain)·2015
Same author

Depletion induced clustering in mixtures of colloidal spheres and fd-virus.

Journal of physics. Condensed matter : an Institute of Physics journal·2012
Same author

Dynamics of a polymer chain confined in a membrane.

The European physical journal. E, Soft matter·2011
Same journal

Publisher Correction: Ultralow-voltage electrochemical organic light-emitting transistors with pinned and wide lateral recombination.

Nature materials·2026
Same journal

High-Chern-number orbital magnetism in twisted rhombohedral graphene.

Nature materials·2026
Same journal

Programming local confinements in crystalline frameworks through reticular chemistry.

Nature materials·2026
Same journal

Single-crystal-like polymer semiconductors via self-templated gradient assembly for ultrahigh charge carrier mobility.

Nature materials·2026
Same journal

Fractional quantum anomalous Hall effect in moiré fractional Chern insulators.

Nature materials·2026
Same journal

Excitons in van der Waals magnetic materials.

Nature materials·2026
See all related articles

Self-avoidance significantly stiffens thin elastic sheets during crumpling, leading to more folds and altered contact mechanics. This effect is crucial even at low densities, impacting material properties across scales.

Area of Science:

  • Materials Science
  • Physics
  • Computational Modeling

Background:

  • Thin elastic sheets are ubiquitous, from microscopic membranes to macroscopic foils.
  • Crumpling these sheets results in complex fold patterns.
  • The physical constraints on these sheets, like self-avoidance, are critical to understanding their behavior.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate the impact of self-avoidance on the crumpling dynamics of thin elastic sheets.
  • To compare the mechanical properties of self-avoiding sheets versus non-self-avoiding (phantom) sheets.
  • To analyze the fold patterns and contact mechanics during the crumpling process.

Main Methods:

  • Large-scale computer simulations were employed to model the crumpling process.
  • Both self-avoiding and phantom sheet models were simulated.

Related Experiment Videos

  • Force-compression relationships, fold characteristics, and sheet-to-sheet contacts were analyzed.

    • Main Results:

    • Self-avoiding sheets exhibit significantly greater stiffness compared to phantom sheets.
    • Crumpled self-avoiding sheets develop a higher density of folds at equivalent compression levels.
    • The fold-length distribution follows a log-normal distribution.
    • Sheet-to-sheet contacts evolve from line-like to 2D-extended with increasing compression due to self-avoidance.

    Conclusions:

    • Self-avoidance is a critical factor influencing the mechanical response and morphology of crumpled thin elastic sheets.
    • The observed stiffening and increased folding are direct consequences of the non-intersection constraint.
    • These findings have implications for understanding the behavior of materials like paper, foils, and biological membranes.