Singularities at soft elastic interfaces

Guest talk by Prof. Jacco Snoeijer (University of Twente)

2018/03/05 15:00-16:30

Soft elastic interfaces exhibit intriguing similarities to liquid interfaces: they possess a surface tension and are susceptible to interfacial instabilities. The first part of this talk addresses wetting on such very soft substrates. It is shown that “soft wetting” fundamentally differs from the usual wetting on rigid surfaces. In the second part we discuss the formation of cusps and creases at elastic interfaces — and point out striking similarities with viscous cusps at liquid interfaces.