Article ID | Journal | Published Year | Pages | File Type |
---|---|---|---|---|
774510 | Extreme Mechanics Letters | 2015 | 7 Pages |
Abstract
Everyday experience suggests that a ‘ruck’ forms when the two ends of a heavy carpet or rug are brought closer together. Classical analysis, however, shows that the horizontal compressive force needed to create such a ruck should be infinite. We show that this apparent paradox is due to the assumption of inextensibility of the rug. By accounting for a finite extensibility, we show that rucks appear with a finite, non-zero end-shortening and confirm our theoretical results with simple experiments. Finally, we note that the appropriate measure of extensibility, the stretchability, is in this case not determined purely by geometry, but incorporates the mechanics of the sheet.
Keywords
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Energy Engineering and Power Technology
Authors
Alpha A. Lee, Clément Le Gouellec, Dominic Vella,