Ideal (monodomain) smectic-A elastomers cross-linked in the smectic-A phase are simply uniaxial rubbers, provided deformations are small. From these materials smectic-C elastomers are produced by a cooling through the smectic-A to smectic-C phase transition. At least in principle, biaxial smectic elastomers could also be produced via cooling from the smectic-A to a biaxial smectic phase. These ...

We have calculated the phase diagrams of one-component fluids made of five types of biaxial particles differing in their cross sections. The orientation of the principal particle axis is fixed in space, while the second axis is allowed to freely rotate. We have constructed a free-energy density functional based on fundamental-measure theory to study the relative stability of nematic and smectic...

The results of a recent investigation of the nematic biaxiality in a bent-core mesogen (A131) are in apparent disagreement with earlier claims. Samples of mesogen A131 used in the two studies were investigated with polarized optical microscopy, conoscopy, carbon-13 NMR, and crossover frequency measurements. The results demonstrate that textural changes associated with the growth of biaxial nema...

This study of woven fabric strength begins by focusing on the effects of the crossing points, where warp and weft yarns interlace with each other to form a fabric, towards the ultimate fabric tensile strength. When a fabric is under uniaxial or biaxial tension, the yarn-yarn interactions at the crossing points are found to consist of two components, a pressure-independent adhesive component and...

Spatially distributed arrays of piezoelectric disks are being applied to monitor structural integrity using Lamb waves. Applied loads directly affect waves propagating between array elements because of dimensional changes and the acoustoelastic effect. Resulting changes in phase velocity depend upon the propagation direction as well as the Lamb wave mode and frequency. This paper shows from num...

We report elastic constant calculation and a "theoretical" tensile experiment on stoichiometric hydroxyapatite (HAP) crystal using an ab initio technique. These results compare favorably with a variety of measured data. Theoretical tensile experiments are performed on the orthorhombic cell of HAP for both uniaxial and biaxial loading. The results show considerable anisotropy in the stress-strai...

A comprehensive study of the effect of tensile strain (ε = 0% to 8%) on the electronic structures of two-dimensional (2D) transition-metal trichalcogenide (TMTC) monolayers MX3 (M = Ti, Zr, Hf, Nb; X = S, Se Te) is performed on the basis of density functional theory (DFT) computation. The unstrained TiS3, ZrS3, ZrSe3, HfS3, HfSe3 and NbS3 monolayers are predicted to be semiconductors with their...

Deuterium quadrupole NMR line shapes were simulated to match experimental spectra of liquid crystalline phases observed in the cesium and sodium n-tetradecanoate-Dz0 systems. The line shapes of single-phase samples with both uniaxial and biaxial symmetry were accurately simulated. Line shape simulations were matched to experimental spectra by minimizing the sum of squared residuals on the basis...

Molecular motors embedded within collections of actin and microtubule filaments underlie the dynamics of cytoskeletal assemblies. Understanding the physics of such motor-filament materials is critical to developing a physical model of the cytoskeleton and designing biomimetic active materials. Here, we demonstrate through experiments and simulations that the rigidity and connectivity of filamen...

We present a nonperturbative solution of the rotational diffusion equation for an asymmetric rotor reorienting in a uniaxial liquid crystal, such as a nematic, smectic A or membrane bilayer covering the full range of order parameters from isotropic to complete order for rod-like and plate-like molecules. We obtain explicit expressions for the rotational diffusion matrix elements for a potential...