Related papers: Ridge approximation for thin nematic polymer netwo…
Minimizing the elastic free energy of a thin sheet of nematic polymer network among smooth isometric immersions is the strategy purported by the mainstream theory. In this paper, we broaden the class of admissible spontaneous deformations:…
Nematic polymeric networks are (heat and light) activable materials, which combine the features of rubber and nematic liquid crystals. When only the stretching energy of a thin sheet of nematic polymeric network is minimized, the intrinsic…
We present a theory of deformation of ribbons made of nematic polymer networks (NPNs). These materials exhibit properties of rubber and nematic liquid crystals, and can be activated by external stimuli of heat and light. A two-dimensional…
We study spontaneous deformations of a ribbon made of nematic polymer networks and activated under the action of a mechanical load. We show that when such ribbons are activated appropriately, the deformations produced can pull back and…
We study the spontaneous out-of-plane bending of a planar untwisted ribbon composed of nematic polymer networks activated by a change in temperature. Our theory accounts for both stretching and bending energies, which compete to establish…
In the context of finite elasticity, we propose plate models describing the spontaneous bending of nematic elastomer thin films due to variations along the thickness of the nematic order parameters. Reduced energy functionals are deduced…
Liquid crystalline networks (LCNs) are stimuli-responsive materials formed from polymeric chains cross-linked with rod-like mesogenic segments, which, in the nematic phase, align along a non-polar director. A key characteristic of these…
We compute effective energies of thin bilayer structures composed by soft nematic elastic-liquid crystals in various geometrical regimes and functional configurations. Our focus is on order-strain interaction in elastic foundations composed…
We present a theory for the elasticity of cross-linked stiff polymer networks. Stiff polymers, unlike their flexible counterparts, are highly anisotropic elastic objects. Similar to mechanical beams stiff polymers easily deform in bending,…
Nematic elastomers and glasses are solids that display spontaneous distortion under external stimuli. Recent advances in the synthesis of sheets with controlled heterogeneities have enabled their actuation into non-trivial shapes with…
Active nematics are microscopically driven liquid crystals that exhibit dynamical steady states characterized by the creation and annihilation of topological defects. Motivated by experimental realizations of such systems made of biopolymer…
Building on the results of our computer simulation (ArXiv cond-mat/0503573)we develop a theoretical description of the motion of a bead, embedded in a network of semiflexible polymers, and responding to an applied force. The theory reveals…
Liquid crystal elastomers are cross-linked elastomer networks with liquid crystal mesogens incorporated into the main or side chain. Polydomain liquid crystalline (nematic) elastomers exhibit unusual mechanical properties like soft…
We propose a continuum model to describe the molecular alignment in thin nematic shells. By contrast with previous accounts, the two-dimensional free energy, aimed at describing the physics of thin films of nematics deposited on curved…
A new potential energy surface (PES) and dynamical study are presented of the reactive process between H2CO + OH towards the formation of HCO + H2O and HCOOH + H. In this work a source of spurious long range interactions in symmetry adapted…
Instabilities in thin elastic sheets, such as wrinkles, are of broad interest both from a fundamental viewpoint and also because of their potential for engineering applications. Nematic liquid crystal elastomers offer a new form of control…
We describe the development of machine-learned potentials of atmospheric gases with flexible monomers for molecular simulations. A recently suggested permutationally invariant polynomial neural network (PIP-NN) approach is utilized to…
This work presents an adaptive activation method for neural networks that exploits the interdependency of features. Each pixel, node, and layer is assigned with a polynomial activation function, whose coefficients are provided by an…
The alignment of fibers and cells in living tissues affect their mechanical properties and functionality. In this context, one can draw an analogy between tissues and nematic liquid crystal elastomers. We explore this analogy by growing…
First-principles investigations on the edge energies and edge stresses of single-layer hexagonal boron-nitride (BN) are presented. The armchair edges of BN nanoribbons (BNNRs) are more stable in energy than zigzag ones. Armchair BNNRs are…