Nested self-similar wrinkling patterns in skins

The wrinkling of model elastomeric artificial skins in a hierarchical pattern consisting of self-similar buckles extending over five orders of magnitude in length scale, ranging from a few nanometers to a few millimeters was analyzed. A mechanism for the formation of this hierarchical wrinkling pattern was provided and experimental findings were quantified with both computations and a simple scaling theory. It was observed that the buckle morphology depends on the strain removal rate. The use of the multigeneration-wrinkled substrate for separating particles based on their size, while simultaneously forming linear chains of monodisperse particles, was shown.