Issue 34, 2014

Nonuniform growth and topological defects in the shaping of elastic sheets

Abstract

We demonstrate that shapes with zero Gaussian curvature, except at singularities, produced by the growth-induced buckling of a thin elastic sheet are the same as those produced by the Volterra construction of topological defects in which edges of an intrinsically flat surface are identified. With this connection, we study the problem of choosing an optimal pattern of growth for a prescribed developable surface, finding a fundamental trade-off between optimal design and the accuracy of the resulting shape which can be quantified by the length along which an edge should be identified.

Graphical abstract: Nonuniform growth and topological defects in the shaping of elastic sheets

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Communication
Submitted
17 Apr 2014
Accepted
24 Jun 2014
First published
24 Jun 2014

Soft Matter, 2014,10, 6382-6386

Author version available

Nonuniform growth and topological defects in the shaping of elastic sheets

N. P. Bende, R. C. Hayward and C. D. Santangelo, Soft Matter, 2014, 10, 6382 DOI: 10.1039/C4SM00845F

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