Mechanical frustration and spontaneous polygonal folding in active nematic sheets

Phys Rev E Stat Nonlin Soft Matter Phys. 2012 Dec;86(6 Pt 1):060701. doi: 10.1103/PhysRevE.86.060701. Epub 2012 Dec 21.

Abstract

We analyze the bending response to light or heat of a solid nematic disk with a director twisted from being radial on the upper surface to be azimuthal on the lower. We find a number of curl lobes determined purely by the geometry of the mechanical frustration that arises during the response.