Growth-induced instabilities of an elastic film on a viscoelastic substrate: analytical solution and computational approach via eigenvalue analysis

The objective of this contribution is to study for the first time the growth-induced instabilities of an elastic film on a viscoelastic substrate using an analytical approach as well as computational simulations via eigenvalue analysis. The growth-induced instabilities of a thin film on a substrate is of particular interest in modeling living tissues such as skin, brain, and airways. The analytical solution is based on Airy's stress function adopted to viscoelastic constitutive behavior. The computational simulations, on the other hand, are carried out using the finite deformation continuum theory accounting for growth via the multiplicative decomposition of the deformation gradient into elastic and growth parts. To capture the critical growth of elastic films and the associated folding pattern, eigenvalue analysis is utilized, in contrast to the commonly used perturbation strategy. The eigenvalue analysis provides accurate, reliable, and reproducible solutions as contrasted to the perturbation approach. The numerical results obtained from the finite element method show an excellent agreement between the computational simulations and the proposed analytical solution.