Adhesion of a nematic elastomer cylinder

Abstract

Reversible dry adhesion is exploited by lizards and insects in nature, and is of interest to robotics and bio-medicine. In this paper, we use numerical simulation to study how the soft elasticity of liquid crystal elastomers can affect its adhesion and provide a technological opportunity. Liquid crystal elastomers are cross-linked elastomer networks with liquid crystal mesogens incorporated into the main or side chain. Polydomain liquid crystalline (nematic) elastomers exhibit unusual mechanical properties like soft elasticity, where the material deforms at nearly constant stress, due to the reorientation of mesogens. Our study reveals that the soft elasticity of nematic elastomers dramatically affects the interfacial stress distribution at the interface of a nematic elastomer cylinder adhered to a rigid substrate. The stress near the edge of the nematic cylinder under tensile load deviates from the singular behavior predicted for linear elastic materials, and the maximum normal stress reduces dramatically. This suggests that nematic elastomers should display extremely high, but controllable adhesion, consistent with the available experimental observations.