Oct 2026· Smart materials and structures (Print)· 0 citations
Abstract
This study investigates the coupled effect of soft elasticity and phase behavior in monodomain liquid crystal elastomer(LCE) through finite element analysis. Soft elasticity allows for large deformations with minimal stress through mesogen rotation. Phase behavior describes the thermotropic transition between nematic and isotropic states, governed by the evolution of the scalar order parameter. Spontaneous behavior in LCEs is fundamentally determined by the interplay between mesogenic order and mechanical strain. Accurate prediction of such complex responses requires the integration of an underlying energy model, an algorithmically consistent constitutive framework, and realistic boundary conditions. Hence, a finite element method is used to implement the consistent constitutive model, enabling the analysis of large scale systems with non-trivial boundary conditions and complex domains. Through the numerical method, the proposed framework captures diverse morphing modes, providing a computational framework for designing programmable LCE-based actuators.
A liquid crystal elastomer (LCE) exhibits a two-way coupling between its mesogen order and network elasticity: the mesogen order sets the undeformed network conformation, and the network deformation reorients the mesogens. This coupling gives rise to large, reversible stimuli-responsive actuation, as well as to soft el...
Digital materials fabricated by multi-material 3D printing are designed as controlled mixtures of stiff and compliant constituents, yielding effective responses that span more than an order of magnitude in apparent stiffness and exhibit strongly nonlinear, composition-dependent, and rate-dependent dissipative behavior....
Josué García-Ávila, Bei-Jun Shen, Manuel K. Rausch et al.· 1 citation
Liquid crystalline elastomers (LCEs) are soft materials capable of large, reversible deformations in response to external stimuli, making them promising alternatives to rigid actuators where compliance and untethered motion are crucial. However, adoption of LCEs in real-world systems has been hindered by the lack of pr...
Zachary Miller, Saman Jamshididana, Nicolas Gonsalves et al.· Soft Matter· 0 citations
This paper presents a systematic investigation into the mechanical behavior of photosensitive liquid crystal elastomer (LCE) fibers, with an emphasis on addressing the insufficient consideration of viscoelastic effects in existing theoretical models. A constitutive model for LCEs incorporating both hyperelasticity and...
A correspondence model for use with peridynamic states is presented, tailored to the description of finite elasticity in soft tissues within a plane-strain setting. A deviatoric–volumetric energy split leads to a stable one-field correspondence formulation, based on spherical and bond-associated non-local deformation...
Vito Diana, F. Scabbia, F. Fantoni et al.· Proceedings of the Royal Soc...· 0 citations
