Interplay of wrinkling and microstucture in nematic elastomer membranes

Abstract eng:
Nematic elastomers are rubbery solids which have liquid crystals incorporated into their polymer chains. These materials are characterized by unusual mechanical properties due to their ability to form fine-scale microstructure. In this work, we study thin membranes made of nematic elastomers. Such membranes feature two potential instabilities — the formation of fine-scale material microstructure and the formation of fine-scale wrinkles. We develop a theoretical framework to study thin membranes of nematic elastomers that accounts for both instabilities, and we implement this framework numerically. Using both analytic and numerical studies, we show that the nematic elastomers can suppress wrinkling. This has important implications on space and other engineering applications where there is a pressing need to combat wrinkling in membrane structures.

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