Abstract：The thermo-mechanical-order coupling in the mechanical behaviors of the liquid crystal elastomers under the uniaxial stretch along the director is investigated based on the stress-strain constitutive equation and the mechanical-order coupling equation. Due to the mechanical-order coupling, the order parameter is increased by the stretch, which thus influences the stress-strain relation of the liquid crystal elastomers, and leads to the result that the stress at the same stretch is reduced. This influence varies with the temperature. Because the order parameter decreases with the temperature, the stretch decreases with the temperature when the nominal stress is fixed; and the stress increases with the temperature when the stretch is fixed. The dependence on temperature for both situations is nonlinear.
2011, Vol. 32 
