Soft elasticity is not necessary for striping in nematic elastomers

The occurrence of striped domains in stretched nematic elastomers has been suggested as evidence for soft elasticity. Conversely, the neo-classical model of Bladon, Terentjev and Warner, which displays soft elasticity, predicts striping. Here we show that the postulated director rotations and shears in the domain regions are also predicted by more general constitutive models that do not involve any notion of softness. Striping in nematic elastomers may therefore be a more general phenomena that is not necessarily an indication of soft elasticity. Furthermore, constitutive models more general than the neo-classical model may also explain the behavior of some nematic elastomers that do not appear to exhibit striping.published or submitted for publicationis peer reviewe