Nonlinear Mechanics of Deformable Soft Electret Materials and the Emergent Phenomena of Pyroelectricity, Electrocaloric Effect, and the Kerr Effect

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dc.contributor.advisorSharma, Pradeep
dc.contributor.committeeMemberGunaratne, Gemunu H.
dc.contributor.committeeMemberChen, Zheng
dc.contributor.committeeMemberBaxevanis, Theocharis
dc.contributor.committeeMemberKulkarni, Yashashree
dc.creatorDarbaniyan, Faezeh
dc.date.accessioned2019-12-17T00:40:37Z
dc.date.createdDecember 2019
dc.date.issued2019-12
dc.date.submittedDecember 2019
dc.date.updated2019-12-17T00:40:39Z
dc.description.abstractSoft materials are capable of undergoing large deformations. This is essential in several applications such as soft robotics, sensors, actuators, energy harvesting, biomimetics among other. In addition, there is a strong impetus to study \emph{multifunctional} soft materials i.e. those that show coupling between two or more fields such a deformation, electrical, magnetic, pH, temperature to name just a few. Unfortunately, most soft matters do not intrinsically possess such multifunctional couplings. In this dissertation, we outline a theoretical framework that exploits nonlinear deformation to design a soft material that exhibits an emergent pyroelectric and electrocaloric behavior. In addition, we present a nonlinear homogenization framework to design the nonlinear Kerr effect. Specifically, in this dissertation, we develop the nonlinear theory that includes the mechanical, thermal, and electrical energy of the system and address the following problems: i) Soft pyroelectric and electrocaloric materials: Pyroelectric and electrocaloric materials are restricted to hard materials or crystals. We propose the notion of using electrets and design soft composite that can \emph{behave} as pyroelectric and electrocaloric materials; ii) Pit-bearing snakes (vipers, pythons, and boas) have an extraordinary ability to ``see” and accurately locate their prey and predators in total darkness. These animals use the infrared radiation emanating from objects that are warmer relative to the background environment to form a thermal image. Building on our theoretical work on pyroeletric materials, we elucidate the central mechanism underpinning the infrared vision of snakes. Despite the exceptional simplicity of our proposed mechanism and model, we are able to explain many of central experimental results pertaining to the transduction process; iii) Soft Material and the Kerr effect: A nonlinear homogenization approach is developed to design the so-called Kerr effect in soft materials.
dc.description.departmentMechanical Engineering, Department of
dc.format.digitalOriginborn digital
dc.format.mimetypeapplication/pdf
dc.identifier.citationPortions of this document appear in: Darbaniyan, Faezeh, Kaushik Dayal, Liping Liu, and Pradeep Sharma. "Designing soft pyroelectric and electrocaloric materials using electrets." Soft matter 15, no. 2 (2019): 262-277.
dc.identifier.urihttps://hdl.handle.net/10657/5524
dc.language.isoeng
dc.rightsThe author of this work is the copyright owner. UH Libraries and the Texas Digital Library have their permission to store and provide access to this work. UH Libraries has secured permission to reproduce any and all previously published materials contained in the work. Further transmission, reproduction, or presentation of this work is prohibited except with permission of the author(s).
dc.subjectPyroelectricity
dc.subjectElectrocaloric
dc.subjectKerr Effect
dc.subjectElectrets
dc.subjectSnake
dc.subjectIR Detection
dc.subjectPit Membrane
dc.titleNonlinear Mechanics of Deformable Soft Electret Materials and the Emergent Phenomena of Pyroelectricity, Electrocaloric Effect, and the Kerr Effect
dc.type.dcmiText
dc.type.genreThesis
local.embargo.lift2021-12-01
local.embargo.terms2021-12-01
thesis.degree.collegeCullen College of Engineering
thesis.degree.departmentMechanical Engineering, Department of
thesis.degree.disciplineMechanical Engineering
thesis.degree.grantorUniversity of Houston
thesis.degree.levelDoctoral
thesis.degree.nameDoctor of Philosophy

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