Transition from wave turbulence to dynamical crumpling in vibrated elastic plates

Phys Rev Lett. 2013 Aug 2;111(5):054302. doi: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.111.054302. Epub 2013 Aug 2.

Abstract

We study the dynamical regime of wave turbulence of a vibrated thin elastic plate based on experimental and numerical observations. We focus our study on the strongly nonlinear regime described in a previous Letter by Yokoyama and Takaoka. At small forcing, a weakly nonlinear regime is compatible with the weak turbulence theory when the dissipation is localized at high wave number. When the forcing intensity is increased, a strongly nonlinear regime emerges: singular structures dominate the dynamics at large scales whereas at small scales the weak turbulence is still present. A turbulence of singular structures with folds and D cones develops that alters significantly the energy spectra and causes the emergence of intermittency.