Buckling and Wrinkling of Thin Films and Membranes

Abstract

An analysis of the results of thin films and membranes study shows their considerable promise due to a number of unique physical and physical-mechanical properties. The buckling (wrinkling, folding and wrinklon formation) is quite a typical phenomenon and can lead to a substantial change of physical properties extending the application field of thin films and membranes. The variation of the elastic strain of a two-dimensional material is an effective method of changing its geometry and properties, and it can stimulate the formation of wrinkles and influence on the parameters such as wavelength, amplitude and orientation. This is due to the fact that the physical system is in weakly stable (easily altered by external factors) state which is close to the stability limit. At the same time, various structural states of the system are thermodynamically similar but structurally different. The studies carried out on thin carbon films (in the limit of graphene-like structures) have shown some nontrivial results indicating unique physical and physical-mechanical properties of thin films and membranes. The promising areas of further research are proposed.