Inside a Ball of Crumpled Aluminum Foil

ORAL

Abstract

We have studied the three-dimensional geometry of a crumpled sheet via x-ray CT scans. We crumple circular sheets of aluminum with thicknesses of 30--50$\mu m$ and diameter 100000$\mu m$ into spherical balls of diameter 15000$\mu m$ to 20000$\mu m$. We then perform CT scans with a resolution of 6$\mu m^3$/voxel. This allows us to fully resolve the conformation of the sheet. We use the reconstructed CT images to determine the mass distribution inside the crumpled ball. We also report on a box-counting analysis to assess the fractal nature of the mass distribution.

*We acknowledge financial support from NSF-DMR 0606216 and NSF-CBET 0609107

Authors

  • Anne Dominique Cambou

    • UMass Amherst
  • Narayanan Menon

    • Dept of Physics, UMass Amherst
    • University of Massachusetts, Amherst
    • Dept of Physics, U. of Massachusetts
    • University of Massachusetts Amherst
    • UMass Amherst
    • Department of Physics, Polymer Science and Engineering, University of Massachusetts Amherst