Delamination of coatings and thin films from substrates generates a fascinating variety of patterns, from circular blisters to wrinkles and labyrinth domains, in a way that is not completely understood. We report on large-scale numerical simulations of the universal problem of avoidance and coalescence of delamination wrinkles, focusing on a case study of graphene sheets on patterned substrates. By nucleating and growing wrinkles in a controlled way, we are able to characterize how their interactions, mediated by long-range stress fields, determine their formation and morphology. We also study how the interplay between geometry and stresses drives a universal transition from conformation to delamination when sheets are deposited on particle-decorated substrates. Our results are directly applicable to strain engineering of graphene and also uncover universal phenomena observed at all scales, as for example in geomembrane deposition.
@article{arxiv.1403.8063,
title = {Avoidance and Coalescence of Delamination Patterns},
author = {Zoe Budrikis and Alessandro L. Sellerio and Zsolt Bertalan and Stefano Zapperi},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1403.8063},
year = {2015}
}