Physics Colloquium - Dr. Narayanan Menon

Abstract: Thin sheets assume a rich diversity of shapes in the natural world, ranging from folds on the earth’s crust, to the wavy shapes of leaves and flowers, down to more microscopic biomembranes and synthetic thin films. The patterns include smooth architectural motifs such as wrinkles, as well as focused localized objects such as folds and ridges. Our experiments study the emergence of complex shapes in thin, fluid-supported polymer films starting from simple featureless initial conditions via successive elastic instabilities. Understanding these patterns required new notions of ‘thinness’ or bendability, which define regimes in which textbook theories of buckling fail. I will end by describing new opportunities for wrapping and encapsulation with highly-bendable materials.