Acoustomechanical giant deformation of soft elastomers with interpenetrating networks

Abstract

We demonstrate giant deformation caused by ultrasound waves in soft elastomers with interpenetrating networks and reveal the physical mechanisms underlying the snap-through instability and phase transition. The snap-through instability can be harnessed to generate large deformation when the elastomer is subjected to combined mechanical and acoustical loading. We further demonstrate that the preserved stresses can enhance not only the mechanical tangential stiffness but also the acoustical tangential stiffness of the elastomer. However, with fixed acoustical loads, the preserved stresses reduce the mechanical tangential stiffness because the dependence of acoustic radiation stress on the stretch state overturns the effect of the preserved stresses. Our findings enable new strategies of device designs based on acoustomechanical soft elastomers having interpenetrating networks.