Liquid crystal elastomers wrinkling

Abstract When a liquid crystal elastomer layer is bonded to an elastic layer, it creates a bilayer with interesting properties that can be activated by applying traction at the boundaries or by optothermal stimulation. Here, we examine wrinkling responses in three-dimensional nonlinear systems containing a monodomain liquid crystal elastomer layer and a homogeneous isotropic incompressible hyperelastic layer, such that one layer is thin compared to the other. The wrinkling is caused by a combination of mechanical forces and external stimuli. To illustrate the general theory, which is valid for a range of bilayer systems and deformations, we assume that the nematic director is uniformly aligned parallel to the interface between the two layers, and that biaxial forces act either parallel or perpendicular to the director. We then perform a linear stability analysis and determine the critical wave number and stretch ratio for the onset of wrinkling. In addition, we demonstrate that a plate model for the thin layer is also applicable when this is much stiffer than the substrate.