Statistical distributions in the folding of elastic structures
Soft Condensed Matter
2015-05-19 v1 Statistical Mechanics
Abstract
The behaviour of elastic structures undergoing large deformations is the result of the competition between confining conditions, self-avoidance and elasticity. This combination of multiple phenomena creates a geometrical frustration that leads to complex fold patterns. By studying the case of a rod confined isotropically into a disk, we show that the emergence of the complexity is associated with a well defined underlying statistical measure that determines the energy distribution of sub-elements,``branches'', of the rod. This result suggests that branches act as the ``microscopic'' degrees of freedom laying the foundations for a statistical mechanical theory of this athermal and amorphous system.
Cite
@article{arxiv.1009.1001,
title = {Statistical distributions in the folding of elastic structures},
author = {Mokhtar Adda-Bedia and Arezki Boudaoud and Laurent Boué and Stephanie Deboeuf},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1009.1001},
year = {2015}
}