Liquid crystal elastomers

Liquid crystal elastomers 

Liquid crystal elastomers dramatically change their shape in response to actuation by heat, light or electric field.  We continue to develop a fundamental understanding of these materials.  First, in collaboration with the Tim White group in AFRL (Wright Patterson), we have proposed a general and systematic framework for the design of complex three dimensional shapes through the actuation heterogeneously patterned nematic elastomer sheets.  These sheets are composed of nonisometric origami building blocks which, when appropriately linked together, can actuate into a diverse array of three dimensional origami shapes.  Specifically, we have demonsrated that: 1) the nonisometric origami building blocks actuate in the predicted manner, 2) the integration of multiple building blocks leads to complex multi-stable, yet predictable, shapes, 3) we can bias the actuation experimentally to obtain a desired complex shape amongst the multi-stable shapes.   Second, we have proposed a model for the electrical actuation of smectic elastomer sheets in flat and curved geometries.  Finally, we are developing a detailed continuum mechanical model of the time-dependent properties of liquid crystal