CAREER: Dissipation Mechanisms and Damping in Smart Elastomers with Intermolecular Organization

Oklahoma State University, Stillwater OK

Investigators

Abstract

Energy harvesting is a promising technology for numerous industrial applications. However, when converting energy into an easily stored form, significant amount of energy is lost due to dissipations. This Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) award supports research on efficient dissipation of mechanical energy at low volume using smart elastomers. This project investigates internal movements in smart elastomers, such as liquid crystal elastomers (LCE), as new dissipation mechanisms that could significantly improve the performance of dampers. Understanding the deformation mechanisms of these LCEs will allow tailoring of the material properties to the desired application, such as energy harvesting, healthcare, and soft robotics. This research is integrated with a sustained educational and outreach activity aimed at developing a pipeline of girls and women in Mechanical Engineering, linking the results of the research program to soft robotics and coding initiation. Activities will focus on three objectives: introducing soft robotics, improving coding skills, and mentoring through research. These activities will increase women’s confidence, performance, and interest in pursuing an engineering career. The project’s goal is to understand the dissipation deformation mechanisms in smart elastomers with intermolecular organization to design highly efficient composite dampers. The fundamental understanding of the dissipation mechanisms originating from the coupling between mesogens and polymer chains will help a comprehensive macroscopic modeling approach for the thermoviscoelastic behavior of LCEs, opening the door to robust device designs. This investigation will be carried out using combined experimental and numerical methods at multiple scales to determine and model the dissipative deformation mechanisms, the curing kinetics, and the damping in a LCE composite. New experimental methods will be developed to map the organization of the microstructure in LCEs to the deformation using depolarized Raman spectroscopy and nuclear magnetic resonance relaxometry. Smoothed particle hydrodynamics (SPH) will be used to study the evolution of a self-organizing microstructure during deformation. Additionally, the interactions between curing kinetics, crosslink density, and microstructure ordering are primordial to accurately predict properties of additively manufactured LCEs. Additionally, the potential for LCE composites to exhibit extreme damping at low cost will be explored. This project is jointly funded by Mechanics of Materials (MoMS) program and the Established Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (EPSCoR). This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.