Elastic Effects in Disordered Nematic Networks

Abstract

Elastic effects in a model of disordered nematic elastomers are numerically investigated in two dimensions. Networks crosslinked in the isotropic phase exhibit unusual soft mechanical response against stretching. It arises from gradual alignment of orientationally correlated regions that are elongated along the director. A sharp crossover to a macroscopically aligned state is obtained on further stretching. The effect of random internal stress is also discussed.

5 pages, 5 figures

References in corpus (2)

• Slow stress relaxation in randomly disordered nematic elastomers and gels
• Exponential Decay of Correlations in a Model for Strongly Disordered 2D Nematic Elastomers

Cited by in corpus (8)

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• Soft and non-soft structural transitions in disordered nematic networks
• Modeling elastic instabilities in nematic elastomers
• Accelerated computational micromechanics
• Statistical physics of isotropic-genesis nematic elastomers: I. Structure and correlations at high temperatures
• Dynamic Theory of Polydomain Liquid-Crystal Elastomers
• Polydomain structure and its origins in isotropic-genesis nematic elastomers
• Pattern Formation in Phase-Separating Gels with Spontaneous Shear