435 citations · 840 across the 17 of their papers we have counts for
17 papers
Snapping and Switching of Elastic Arches with Patterned Preferred Curvature
Michał Zmyślony, Ammar Khan, John S. Biggins
An elastic arch is an archetypal bistable system. Here, we combine elastica theory and photo-mechanical experiments to elucidate the mechanics of an active arch with a spatio-tempo…
Metric mechanics with non-trivial topology: actuating irises, cylinders and evertors
D. Duffy, M. Javed, M. K. Abdelrahman +3
Liquid crystal elastomers contract along their director on heating and recover on cooling, offering great potential as actuators and artificial muscles. If a flat sheet is programm…
Large deformation analysis of spontaneous twist and contraction in nematic elastomer fibres with helical director
Andrea Giudici, John S. Biggins
A cylindrical rubber fibre subject to twist will also elongate: a manifestation of Poynting's effect in large strain elasticity. Here, we construct an analogous treatment for an ac…
Giant deformations and soft-inflation in LCE balloons
Andrea Giudici, John S. Biggins
We propose that ballooning can be controlled, enriched and amplified by using rubbery networks of aligned molecular rods known as liquid crystal elastomers (LCEs). Firstly, LCEs ar…
Defective nematogenesis: Gauss curvature in programmable shape-responsive sheets with topological defects
Daniel Duffy, John S. Biggins
Flat sheets encoded with patterns of contraction/elongation morph into curved surfaces. If the surfaces bear Gauss curvature, the resulting actuation can be strong and powerful. We…
Evolving, complex topography from combining centers of Gaussian curvature
Fan Feng, John S. Biggins, Mark Warner
Liquid crystal elastomers and glasses can have significant shape change determined by their director patterns. Cones deformed from circular director patterns have non-trivial Gauss…