On The Physics of Crumpled Paper Balls

Publication date: Tue, Sep 20, 2011 - 9:26pm

The research of UMass Physics graduate student Dominique Cambou and Professor Narayanan Menon, investigating the three-dimensional structure of highly crumpled sheets, was featured in a recent issue of Physics Today and Wired Science. The image is a reconstructed section from an x-ray CAT scan of a crumpled metal foil. Analysis of these images gives new insights into why such an open structure can be so rigid. Future work will aim to understand not just the crumpled structure but the crumpling process. The study is published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science.