Abstract
In this study, we investigate the influence of geometrical imperfections on swelling-induced buckling patterns in gel films with holes in a square array. Finite element analysis is performed using the inhomogeneous field theory of polymeric gels in equilibrium proposed by Hong et al. (2009). Periodic units consisting of 2×2 unit cells are analyzed under a generalized plane strain assumption. Geometrical imperfections are introduced using randomly oriented elliptical holes. Results show that the resulting buckling patterns are sensitive to imperfections; three different buckling patterns are obtained, and the most dominant one is the diamond plate pattern observed in experiments, which cannot be described using the model without imperfections.
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