Summary
Nontechnical Abstract Thin materials can be bent, twisted, and wrinkled into a multitude of forms. The resulting shapes can be smooth like the undulating edge of a flower, or sharp like the creases and points in a crumpled ball of foil. The goal of this research is to understand when these features turn out to be smooth versus when they are sharp. This deceptively simple question is surprisingly difficult to answer, and it impacts a variety of technologies that rely on thin sheets. This project consists of a suite of model experiments where polymer films are forced into different geometries
