LOCAL STRAIN FIELDS IN PAPER

When a paper specimen is strained microscopic ruptures give rise to pl astic deformations. These deformations can be made visible by silicone impregnation. We show that the plastic deformations or strains are no nuniform on the microscopic and macroscopic scale. Large fractions of a typical paper specimen do not enter the plastic region before ruptur e, even though the macroscopic behavior may be highly plastic. Compute r simulations are employed to evaluate the macroscopic strain variatio ns and the changes in paper properties that are induced by formation-t ype disorder. We show that increasing disorder reduces the number of p lastic yield sites.