Deformation of an asymmetric thin film

Phys Rev E Stat Nonlin Soft Matter Phys. 2012 Sep;86(3 Pt 2):036602. doi: 10.1103/PhysRevE.86.036602. Epub 2012 Sep 12.

Abstract

Experiments have investigated shape changes of polymer films induced by asymmetric swelling by a chemical vapor. Inspired by recent work on the shaping of elastic sheets by non-Euclidean metrics [Y. Klein, E. Efrati, and E. Sharon, Science 315, 1116 (2007)], we represent the effect of chemical vapors by a change in the target metric tensor. In this problem, unlike that earlier work, the target metric is asymmetric between the two sides of the film. Changing this metric induces a curvature of the film, which may curve into a partial cylinder or a partial sphere. We calculate the elastic energy for each of these shapes and show that the sphere is favored for films smaller than a critical size, which depends on the film thickness, while the cylinder is favored for larger films.

Publication types

  • Research Support, U.S. Gov't, Non-P.H.S.

MeSH terms

  • Computer Simulation
  • Elastic Modulus
  • Membranes, Artificial*
  • Models, Chemical*
  • Polymers / chemistry*
  • Surface Properties

Substances

  • Membranes, Artificial
  • Polymers