Soltani Madjid, Raahemifar Kaamran, Nokhosteen Arman, Kashkooli Farshad Moradi, Zoudani Elham L
Department of Mechanical Engineering, K.N. Toosi University of Technology, Tehran 19991-43344, Iran.
Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, ON N2L 3G1, Canada.
Polymers (Basel). 2021 May 19;13(10):1650. doi: 10.3390/polym13101650.
Liquid crystal elastomers (LCEs) are a type of material with specific features of polymers and of liquid crystals. They exhibit interesting behaviors, i.e., they are able to change their physical properties when met with external stimuli, including heat, light, electric, and magnetic fields. This behavior makes LCEs a suitable candidate for a variety of applications, including, but not limited to, artificial muscles, optical devices, microscopy and imaging systems, biosensor devices, and optimization of solar energy collectors. Due to the wide range of applicability, numerical models are needed not only to further our understanding of the underlining mechanics governing LCE behavior, but also to enable the predictive modeling of their behavior under different circumstances for different applications. Given that several mainstream methods are used for LCE modeling, viz. finite element method, Monte Carlo and molecular dynamics, and the growing interest and reliance on computer modeling for predicting the opto-mechanical behavior of complex structures in real world applications, there is a need to gain a better understanding regarding their strengths and weaknesses so that the best method can be utilized for the specific application at hand. Therefore, this investigation aims to not only to present a multitude of examples on numerical studies conducted on LCEs, but also attempts at offering a concise categorization of different methods based on the desired application to act as a guide for current and future research in this field.
液晶弹性体（LCEs）是一种兼具聚合物和液晶特定特性的材料。它们表现出有趣的行为，即当受到外部刺激（包括热、光、电和磁场）时，能够改变其物理性质。这种行为使LCEs成为各种应用的合适候选材料，包括但不限于人造肌肉、光学器件、显微镜和成像系统、生物传感器设备以及太阳能收集器的优化。由于其广泛的适用性，不仅需要数值模型来加深我们对支配LCE行为的基础力学的理解，还需要数值模型来对其在不同情况下针对不同应用的行为进行预测建模。鉴于有几种主流方法用于LCE建模，即有限元法、蒙特卡罗法和分子动力学法，并且在实际应用中对计算机建模预测复杂结构的光机械行为的兴趣和依赖日益增加，有必要更好地了解它们的优缺点，以便为手头的特定应用选择最佳方法。因此，本研究旨在不仅展示大量关于LCEs数值研究的例子，还尝试根据预期应用对不同方法进行简要分类，作为该领域当前和未来研究的指南。
