Finite element modeling of programmable liquid crystal elastomer plates and its application in text display

Abstract

Liquid crystal elastomers (LCEs) have wide and potential applications in artificial muscles, soft robots, biomedical devices, and so on. On the application of LCE plate in text display, different from others' work where specially shaped ultraviolet (UV) lighting is used, in this paper, the programmable deformation of LCE plates with arbitrary liquid crystal orientation subjected to uniform light illumination is investigated. A photomechanical coupling finite element method (FEM) is developed, in which the impact of the shear strains induced by light is taken into account. Inspired by the FEM, the LCE plate is divided into finite small regions. By altering the liquid crystal orientation of each region in the LCE plate, the ability to generate 24 letters and 10 numbers through light‐induced deformations is demonstrated. Matrixes of the liquid crystal orientation corresponding to each letter and number are provided. This work indicates that it is possible for blind people to read text information by touching the deformed LCE plate.