Elucidating the dynamics of crumpling via elastoplastic sheet simulation

Crumpled structures are often considered a model complex system in soft matter. Nevertheless, recent studies have shown that the intricate ridge network and facet size distribution of these disordered systems exhibit robust statistics. Notably, the ridge and facet size distributions that evolve over repeated axial crumpling may be effectively modeled by a physical fragmentation process. However, the task of generalizing these results for a wide range of material properties and compaction geometries remains limited by experimental data acquisition rates. To complement data-driven studies, we present a computational model of thin elastoplastic sheets that enables us to study real-time spatial damage evolution. Simulations of repeated axial crumpling demonstrate consistency with the logarithmic accumulation of total crease length observed experimentally. Moreover, we find that simulations of both axial and radial crumpling show evidence of facet size statistics as predicted by the fragmentation-based model. These observations suggest universal behavior uniting different materials and geometries of such disordered systems.