TY - JOUR T1 - Critical voltages and blocking stresses in nematic gels JF - Eur. Phys. J. E 24 (2007) 303-310 Y1 - 2007 A1 - Antonio DeSimone A1 - Antonio Di Carlo A1 - Luciano Teresi AB - We use a recently proposed model to study the dynamics of director remodeling in nematic gels under combined electro-mechanical loading. Focusing on a model specimen, we describe the critical volt-ages that must be exceeded to achieve mesogen reorientation, and the blocking stresses that prevent alignment of the nematic mesogens with the electric field. The corresponding phase diagram shows that the dynamic thresholds defined above are different from those predicted on the sole basis of energetics. Multistep loading programs are used to explore the energy landscape of our model specimen, showing the existence of multiple local minima under the same voltage and applied stress. This leads us to conclude that hysteresis should be expected in the electro-mechanical response of nematic gels. UR - http://hdl.handle.net/1963/2553 U1 - 1566 U2 - Mathematics U3 - Functional Analysis and Applications ER -