Effect of Surface Properties on Wrinkling of Ultrathin Films
Publication: Journal of Aerospace Engineering
Volume 20, Issue 1
Abstract
Thin films bonded to compliant substrates often develop wrinkles when subjected to an applied or inherent compressive stress. This paper presents a bilayer model to account for surface effects on the wrinkling of ultrathin solid films. Assuming a surface layer of finite thickness, effects of surface properties on the critical strain, the equilibrium wavelength, and the wrinkle amplitude are discussed in comparison with conventional analysis. We apply this model to explain experimental observations of wrinkling in thin polymer films. The measured wrinkle wavelengths and amplitudes deviate from conventional analysis for ultrathin films with thickness less than . The bilayer model provides a consistent understanding of the observed deviations, based on which a set of material properties for the surface and the bulk of the polymer films are deduced from the experimental data.
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Acknowledgments
The first writer is grateful for the support by the NSF through Grant No. NSFCMS-0547409 and by the Texas Advance Technology Program. The second and third writers gratefully acknowledge the NIST National Research Council Postdoctoral Fellowship Program.
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Information & Authors
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Published In
Journal of Aerospace Engineering
Volume 20 • Issue 1 • January 2007
Pages: 38 - 44
Copyright
© 2007 ASCE.
History
Received: Aug 26, 2005
Accepted: Feb 22, 2006
Published online: Jan 1, 2007
Published in print: Jan 2007
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