Prof. Antonio DeSimone: Mechanics of nematic elastomers: modeling, analysis, and numerical simulation
Povzetek:
Mechanics of nematic elastomers: modeling, analysis, and numerical simulation
Prof. Antonio DeSimone, SISSA-International School for Advanced Studies, Trieste, Italy
Nematic elastomers are systems which combine optical properties of nematic liquid crystals with the mechanical properties of rubbery solids. They display phase transformations, material instabilities, and microstructures. These phenomena are related to the formation of elastic shear bands which are reminiscent of mechanical twinning in shape-memory alloys. The richness of the underlying material symmetries makes the mathematical analysis of this system particularly rewarding. In this talk, we will review the recent progress on the modelling of martensitic-like microstructures in nematic elastomers, which has led to accurate coarse-grained models for the effective mechanical response.
