Straightening wrinkles

•We consider the elastic straightening of a circular cylindrical sector composed of an incompressible isotropic soft solid into a rectangular block.•We investigate the geometrical and physical conditions under which localised incremental instability develops.•We provide a robust algorithm to solve the corresponding two-point boundary value problem.•We illustrate the results with incremental displacement fields in the case of Mooney–Rivlin materials.•We perform an asymptotic analysis for thin sectors.

We consider the elastic deformation of a circular cylindrical sector composed of an incompressible isotropic soft solid when it is straightened into a rectangular block. In this process, the circumferential line elements on the original inner face of the sector are stretched while those on the original outer face are contracted. We investigate the geometrical and physical conditions under which the latter line elements can be contracted to the point where a localized incremental instability develops. We provide a robust algorithm to solve the corresponding two-point boundary value problem, which is stiff numerically. We illustrate the results with full incremental displacement fields in the case of Mooney–Rivlin materials and also perform an asymptotic analysis for thin sectors.