Shrinkage, wrinkling and ablation of burning cloth and paper

Abstract

The burning of a sheet of cellulose-based material, such as paper or cloth, involves uneven shrinkage which causes wrinkling. We simulate this geometrically complicated phenomenon by modeling the effects of heat transfer, shrinkage and partial ablation on a thin shell. A strain-limitation technique is applied to a two-layer structure of springs arranged as a body-centered square. Although this structure is over-constrained, convergence can be achieved using a new successive fast projection method. We also remesh the shells dynamically to deal with the topological changes that occur as regions burn away.