Wednesday  |  Allegheny  |  03:10 PM–03:30 PM

#13342, High Strain Rate Compressive Behavior of 3D Printed Liquid Crystal Elastomers

Polymers are widely used as damping materials in vibration and impact applications. Liquid crystal elastomers (LCEs) are a unique class of polymer that may offer potential for enhanced energy absorption capacity under impact conditions over conventional polymers due to their ability to align the nematic phase during loading. Being a relatively new material, the high rate compressive properties of LCE have been minimally studied. Here, we investigated the high strain rate compression behavior of different solid LCEs, including cast polydomain and 3D-printed, preferentially oriented monodomain samples. Direct ink write (DIW) 3D printed samples allow unique sample designs, namely specific orientation of mesogens with respect to the loading direction. Loading the sample in different orientations can induce mesogen rotation during mechanical loading, and subsequently different stress-strain response under impact. We also used a reference polymer, bisphenol-A (BPA) cross-linked resin, to contrast LCE behavior from conventional elastomer behavior.

Brett Sanborn   Sandia National Laboratories
Devesh Mistry   University of Leeds
Bo Song   Sandia National Laboratories
Kai Yu   University of Colorado
Kevin Long   Sandia National Laboratories
Christopher Yakacki   University of Colorado