Wrinkling of liquid-crystal elastomer disks caused by light-driven dynamic contraction

The trigger time of light-driven wrinkling is very critical for accurate active control in photo-powered machines. In this paper, the wrinkling of liquid-crystal elastomer disks caused by light-driven dynamic contraction is theoretically studied, and the critical times for appearance and disappearance of the wrinkles are numerically calculated. The light-driven prebuckling stress can be significantly adjusted by changing the contraction coefficient, while controlled within a certain limit by tuning the light intensity and illumination time. There exists a critical contraction coefficient for triggering the wrinkling of the disk, and the second-order mode of wrinkling is the most unstable mode, which is most easily induced for the illumination radius ratio 0.69. The critical times for the appearance and disappearance of wrinkling can be significantly changed by the contraction coefficient, while regulated only within a certain range by the light intensity and the illumination radius ratio. These results have potential applications for accurate active control in the fields of soft robotics, active microlens, smart windows, and tunable surface patterns.