Stenull and Lubensky [Phys. Rev. E 76, 011706 (2007)] have argued that shear strain and tilt of the director relative to the layer normal are coupled in smectic elastomers and that the imposition of one necessarily leads to the development of the other. This means, in particular, that a smectic-A elastomer subjected to a simple shear will develop smectic-C-like tilt of the director. Recently, K...

The present work is a detailed study of the connections between microstructural instabilities and their macroscopic manifestations — as captured through the effective properties — in finitely strained fiber-reinforced elastomers, subjected to finite, planestrain deformations normal to the fiber direction. The work, which is a complement to a previous and analogous investigation by the same auth...

Most recent developments in polymers from renewable resources have focused on thermoplastics, whereas there has been no comparable development of plastics with elastomeric properties. Here we evaluate the possibility of developing renewable elastomers based on starch. Potato starch plasticized with glycerol (called plasticized starch, or PLS) was melt-blended with small quantities (5 wt % or 15...

We demonstrate the use of functionalized graphene sheets (FGSs) as multifunctional nanofillers to improve mechanical properties, lower gas permeability, and impart electrical conductivity for several distinct elastomers. FGS consists mainly of single sheets of crumbled graphene containing oxygen functional groups and is produced by the thermal exfoliation of oxidized graphite (GO). The present ...

We present a computational study of the effects of viscoelasticity on the electromechanical behavior of dielectric elastomers. A dynamic, finite deformation finite element formulation for dielectric elastomers is developed that incorporates the effects of viscoelasticity using the nonlinear viscoelasticity theory previously proposed by Reese and Govindjee. The finite element model features a th...

The numerical simulation of structural parts made from polymers is becoming increasingly important. Although highly sophisticated material laws are available in commercial finite element programs, there are still open questions, especially for crashworthiness analysis. In this paper, we restrict our attention to the explicit solver of LS-DYNA, see [1] and [2]. However, the results are transfera...

Magneto-rheological (MR) elastomers contain micro-/nano-sized ferromagnetic particles dispersed in a soft elastomer matrix, and their rheological properties (storage and loss moduli) exhibit a significant dependence on the application of a magnetic field (namely MR effect). Conversely, it is reported in this work that this multiphysics coupling is associated with an inverse effect (i.e. the dep...

This article reports the modification of Al2O3/GaAs surfaces with multifunctional soft materials. Siloxane elastomers were covalently bound to dopamine-modified Al2O3/GaAs semiconductor surfaces using MPt (M = Fe, Ni) nanoparticles. The sizes of the monodisperse FePt and NiPt nanoparticles were less than 5 nm. The surfaces of the nanoparticles as well as the Al2O3/GaAs substrates were modified ...

the organo-metal salt of aluminum triacrylate (alta) with a general formula of (ch2=chcoo)3al was  synthesized  as  a  reactive  fller  for  elastomers through a two-step synthetic procedure. fourier transform-infrared spectroscopy (ftir), dsc and dta were employed for alta analysis and to study its cure characteristics. in this research, two composites based on ethylene propylene diene monomer...