2016/05/17 by Taylor, Jamie M.
#FOS: Physical sciences #Soft Condensed Matter (cond-mat.soft)
paper · doi:10.48550/arxiv.1606.05288
In this work we will derive an anisotropic generalisation of the finitely extensible chain model, due to Kuhn and Grün, which is well known in rubber elasticity. This provides a chain energy that couples elastic behaviour to a probability distribution describing the orientations of liquid crystal monomers within a main chain elastomer. The key point is to invoke a maximum relative entropy assumption on the distribution of bond angles in an observed chain. The chain energy's fourth order Taylor expansion is also given, which couples to the second and fourth moments of the nematic distribution function only.