Related papers: Model for Photoresponsive Nematic Elastomers
Photoactive nematic elastomers are soft rubbery solids that undergo deformation when illuminated. They are made by incorporating photoactive molecules like azobenzene into nematic liquid crystal elastomers. Since its initial demonstration…
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…
Rotating the clamped ends of a buckled elastica induces a snap-through instability. Predicting the limit point and determining the equilibria at the start and end of the snap are routine computations in the quasi-static setting. The…
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 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…
A theoretical analysis of the effect of force and torque on spontaneously twisted, fluctuating elastic ribbons is presented. We find that when a filament with a straight center line and a spontaneously twisted noncircular cross section is…
We describe the complex time-dependence of the build up of force exerted by a clamped photo-elastomer under illumination. Nonlinear (non-Beer) absorption leads to a bleaching wave of a significant cis isomer dye concentration deeply…
We address the mechanics of an elastic ribbon subjected to twist and tensile load. Motivated by the classical work of Green and a recent experiment that discovered a plethora of morphological instabilities, we introduce a comprehensive…
Helical ribbons arise in many biological and engineered systems, often driven by anisotropic surface stress, residual strain, and geometric or elastic mismatch between layers of a laminated composite. A full mathematical analysis is…
Cholesteric liquid crystal elastomers have interesting and potentially very useful photonic properties. In an ideal monodomain configuration of these materials, one finds a Bragg-reflection of light in a narrow wavelength range and a…
The macroscopic shape of liquid crystalline elastomers strongly depends on the order parameter of the mesogenic groups. This order can be manipulated if photoisomerisable groups, e.g. containing N=N bonds, are introduced into the material.…
Thermally fluctuating sheets and ribbons provide an intriguing forum in which to investigate strong violations of Hooke's Law: large distance elastic parameters are in fact not constant, but instead depend on the macroscopic dimensions.…
Nematic elastomers and glasses deform spontaneously when subjected to temperature changes. This property can be exploited in the design of heterogeneously patterned thin sheets that deform into a non-trivial shape when heated or cooled. In…
A range of monodomain nematic liquid crystal elastomers containing differing proportions of photo-isomerisable mesogenic moieties, which turn from a rod-like to a kinked shape upon ultraviolet (UV) irradiation, was studied. Depending on the…
The Discrete elastic rod method (Bergou et al., 2008) is a numerical method for simulating slender elastic bodies. It works by representing the center-line as a polygonal chain, attaching two perpendicular directors to each segment, and…
Matrix elements of electron-light interactions for armchair and zigzag graphene nanoribbons are constructed analytically using a tight-binding model. The changes in wavenumber ($\Delta n$) and pseudospin are the necessary elements if we are…
We investigate the statistical mechanics of long developable ribbons of finite width and very small thickness. The constraint of isometric deformations in these ribbon-like structures that follows from the geometric separation of scales…
We investigate the finite bending and the associated bending instability of an incompressible dielectric slab subject to a combination of applied voltage and axial compression, using nonlinear electro-elasticity theory and its incremental…
This study of elastic and plastic deformation of graphene, silicene, and boron nitride (BN) honeycomb nanoribbons under uniaxial tension determines their elastic constants and reveals interesting features. In the course of stretching in the…
In this article, we unravel an intimate relationship between two seemingly unrelated concepts: elasticity, that defines the local relations between stress and strain of deformable bodies, and topology that classifies their global shape.…