Topological crossover

We study the scaling properties of forced folding of thin materials of different geometry. The scaling relations implying the topological crossovers from the folding of three dimensional plates to the folding of two-dimensional sheets, and further to the packing of one-dimensional strings, are derived for elastic and plastic manifolds. These topological crossovers in the folding of plastic manifolds were observed in experiments with predominantly plastic aluminum strips of different geometry.