Finite element modeling of programmable liquid crystal elastomer plates and its application in text display

Kezhen Huang, Kaifa Wang, Baolin Wang

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

4 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Liquid crystal elastomers (LCEs) have wide and potential applications in artificial muscles, soft robots, biomedical devices, and so on. On the application of LCE plate in text display, different from others' work where specially shaped ultraviolet (UV) lighting is used, in this paper, the programmable deformation of LCE plates with arbitrary liquid crystal orientation subjected to uniform light illumination is investigated. A photomechanical coupling finite element method (FEM) is developed, in which the impact of the shear strains induced by light is taken into account. Inspired by the FEM, the LCE plate is divided into finite small regions. By altering the liquid crystal orientation of each region in the LCE plate, the ability to generate 24 letters and 10 numbers through light-induced deformations is demonstrated. Matrixes of the liquid crystal orientation corresponding to each letter and number are provided. This work indicates that it is possible for blind people to read text information by touching the deformed LCE plate.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)1-17
Number of pages17
JournalJournal of Applied Polymer Science
Volume140
Issue number40
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 20 Oct 2023
Externally publishedYes

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2023 Wiley Periodicals LLC.

Keywords

  • FEM
  • LCE plate
  • programmable deformation
  • text display

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