Wrinkles in Square Membranes

This paper investigates the wrinkling of square membranes of isotropic material, subject to coplanar pairs of equal and opposite corner forces. These membranes are initially stress free and perfectly flat. Two wrinkling regimes are observed experimentally and are also reproduced by means of finite-element simulations. A general methodology for making preliminary analytical estimates of wrinkle patterns and average wrinkle amplitudes and wavelengths, while also gaining physical insight into the wrinkling of membranes, is presented.