Diffusion-induced wrinkling instability in a circular poroelastic plate

A poroelastic material can imbibe solvent and swell. When the material swells inhomogeneously or

swells under external constraints, stresses can develop inside the material. The stresses can trigger

mechanical instabilities in the material or even break the material, which have been often observed

in experiments. In this paper, we study the wrinkling instability of a circular poroelastic plate, in

the process of solvent molecules migrating into the plate from the edge. The critical conditions for

the initiation and disappearance of wrinkles in the plate are presented.