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SUMMARY:Making Faces: Universal Inverse Design of Thin Nematic Elastomer S
 urfaces - Hillel Aharoni (Weizmann Institute of Science)
DTSTART:20190513T123000Z
DTEND:20190513T131000Z
UID:TALK124267@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:INI IT
DESCRIPTION:Thin nematic elastomer sheets can be programmed\, via the nema
 tic director field embedded into them\, to take different shapes in differ
 ent environments. Recent experiments from various groups demonstrate excel
 lent control over the director field\, thus opening a door for achieving a
 ccurate and versatile designs of shape-shifting surfaces. At the crux of a
 ny effort to implement this design mechanism lies the inverse design probl
 em -- given an arbitrary surface geometry\, constructing the director fiel
 d that would induce it. In this talk I describe several aspects of this in
 verse problem. I present a numerical algorithm for finding global approxim
 ate solutions for any 2D geometry. I also show that many exact solutions a
 lways exist locally and can be readily integrated\, and classify the set o
 f all director fields that deform into an arbitrary given geometry. These 
 results allow optimizing the resultant director fields for different purpo
 ses\, e.g. maximizing the domain of a global solution\, increasing its rob
 ustness\, reducing residual stresses\, or controlling the entire shape-shi
 fting path.
LOCATION:Seminar Room 1\, Newton Institute
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