Compressing a Cylindrical Shell with a Rigid Core

Compressed cylindrical shells are common in our daily life, such as the diamond shape in rolled-up sleeves, crumpled aluminum cans, and retreated package of now defunct drinking straws. The kind of deformation is formally called the Yoshimura pattern. However, there are many other equally prevalent modes of deformation, depending on the relative size of radius between the shell and its inner core, the thickness and rigidity and plasticity of the shell, etc. To elucidate the phase diagram for these modes, we combine molecular dynamics simulations and experiments to study the energetic, mechanical, and morphological responses of a compressed cylindrical shell with a hard core.