Incompatible strains associated with defects in nematic elastomers

Fried, Eliot; Sellers, Shaun

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https://hdl.handle.net/2142/959 Copy

Description

Title

Incompatible strains associated with defects in nematic elastomers

Author(s)

• Fried, Eliot
• Sellers, Shaun

Issue Date

2006

Keyword(s)

• Nematic elastomer
• Polymer network chains

Abstract

In a nematic elastomer the deformation of the polymer network chains is coupled to the orientational order of the mesogenic groups. Statistical arguments have derived the so-called neoclassical free energy that models this coupling. Here we show that the neoclassical model supplemented by the usual Frank energy predicts incompatible network strains associated with the formation of standard nematic textures. The incompatibility is measured by the Riemann curvature tensor, which we find to be nonzero for both radial hedgehog defects and escaped disclinations of strength +1 in circular cylinders. Analogous problems for conventional nonlinearly elastic solids do not possess solutions with such incompatibilities. Compatibility in nematic elastomers would require either more complicated nematic textures in elastomers than in conventional polymeric and low molecular weight liquid crystals or a free-energy density more complicated than the neoclassical expression.

Publisher

American Institute of Physics

Type of Resource

text

Language

en

Permalink

http://hdl.handle.net/2142/959

DOI

https://doi.org/10.1063/1.2149857

Copyright and License Information

Copyright 2006 American Institute of Physics. This article may be downloaded for personal use only. Any other use requires prior permission of the author and the American Institute of Physics.

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