Surface instability of confined elastic bilayers: Theory and simulations

Tomar, Gaurav and Sharma, Ashutosh and Shenoy, Vijay B and Biswas, Gautam (2007) Surface instability of confined elastic bilayers: Theory and simulations. In: Physical Review E - Statistical, Nonlinear and Soft Matter Physics, 76 (1). 011607- 011614.

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Abstract

The surface of a soft elastic film becomes unstable and forms a self-organized undulating pattern because of adhesive interactions when it comes in contact proximity with a rigid surface. For a single film, the pattern length scale lambda, which is governed by the minimization of the elastic stored energy, gives lambda similar to 3h, where h is the film thickness. Based on a linear stability analysis and simulations of adhesion and debonding, we consider the contact instability of an elastic bilayer, which provides greater flexibility in the morphological control of interfacial instability. Unlike the case of a single film, the morphology of the contact instability patterns, debonding distance, and debonding force in a bilayer can be controlled in a nonlinear way by varying the thicknesses and shear moduli of the films. Interestingly, the pattern wavelength in a bilayer can be greatly increased or decreased compared to a single film when the adhesive contact is formed by the stiffer or the softer of the two films, respectively. In particular, lambda as small as 0.5h can be obtained. This indicates a new strategy for pattern miniaturization in elastic contact lithography.

Item Type:	Journal Article
Publication:	Physical Review E - Statistical, Nonlinear and Soft Matter Physics
Publisher:	The American Physical Society
Additional Information:	Copyright of this article belongs to APS
Department/Centre:	Division of Mechanical Sciences > Materials Engineering (formerly Metallurgy)
Date Deposited:	05 May 2010 04:55
Last Modified:	19 Sep 2010 06:01
URI:	http://eprints.iisc.ac.in/id/eprint/27501

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