Conical Surfaces and Crescent Singularities in （锥形表面和新月奇点在）.pdf

VOLUME 80, NUMBER 11 P H Y S I C A L R E V I E W L E T T E R S 16 MARCH 1998 Conical Surfaces and Crescent Singularities in Crumpled Sheets E. Cerda* and L. Mahadevan† Division of Mechanics and Materials, Mechanical Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 77 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139 (Received 14 October 1997) We analyze the geometry and elasticity of the crescentlike singularity on a crumpled elastic sheet. We give a physical realization of this in terms of a free-boundary contact problem. An analytical solution is given for the universal shape of a developable cone that characterizes the singularity far from the tip, and some of its predictions are qualitatively verified experimentally. We also give a scaling relation for the core size, defined as the region close to the tip of the cone where the sheet is not developable. [S0031-9007(98)05465-9] PACS numbers: 68.60.Bs, 03.40.Dz, 46.30.Cn As children, we are taught that to make a cone out of cylinder. The excess material due to this motion is tucked a piece of paper we should start with a circular sheet, in as a fold, and the sheet is then only in partial contact with cut out a sector along two distinct radii, and then glue the edge of the cylinder. This construction leads to a con- these radii by bending the sheet out of the plane. The ical surface with reflection symmetry that is developable curvature of the axisymmetric cone so