Liquid crystal elastomers (LCEs) are a kind of soft smart materials with fascinating programmability and have a broad application prospect. The monodomain LCEs under loading exhibit the semi-soft elasticity due to the stress-induced director rotation and the resulting spontaneous strain. In this article, we aim to reduce the severe stress concentration of LCEs by programming the initial director orientations. We numerically studied the stress concentration behaviors of a LCE sheet containing a small circular hole with different distribution of initial director under uniaxial loading. For monodomain LCE sheets, the stress concentration factor monotonically decreases as the initial director orientation deviates from the loading direction, and achieves its minimum when the deviation angle reaches 45°. This reduction of stress concentration is attributed to the smaller relative net director rotation and the lower resulting spontaneous strain near the hole edge as the deviation angle increases. Since the director rotation near the hole edge is critical for the attenuation of stress concentration, we only program the initial director orientation near the hole edge, and achieve up to 50% reduction in stress concentration factor. Increasing the size of programming area also enhances the attenuation of stress concentration. This work provides a new strategy to reduce the stress concentration in LCEs with geometric defects.

液晶弹性体（LCEs）是一种具有迷人可编程性的软智能材料，具有广阔的应用前景。由于应力诱导的导向器旋转和由此产生的自发应变，负载下的单畴 LCE 表现出半软弹性。在本文中，我们旨在通过对初始导向器方向进行编程来减少 LCE 的严重应力集中。我们数值研究了包含具有不同初始指向矢分布的小圆孔的 LCE 板在单轴加载下的应力集中行为。对于单畴 LCE 片材，应力集中因子随着初始导向器方向偏离加载方向而单调减小，并在偏离角达到 45° 时达到最小值。这种应力集中的减少归因于较小的相对净导向器旋转和随着偏角增加而在孔边缘附近产生的较低的自发应变。由于孔边缘附近的导向器旋转对于应力集中的衰减至关重要，因此我们仅对孔边缘附近的初始导向器方向进行编程，并实现了应力集中系数降低高达 50%。增加编程区域的大小也增强了应力集中的衰减。这项工作提供了一种新的策略来减少具有几何缺陷的 LCE 中的应力集中。由于孔边缘附近的导向器旋转对于应力集中的衰减至关重要，因此我们仅对孔边缘附近的初始导向器方向进行编程，并实现了应力集中系数降低高达 50%。增加编程区域的大小也增强了应力集中的衰减。这项工作提供了一种新的策略来减少具有几何缺陷的 LCE 中的应力集中。由于孔边缘附近的导向器旋转对于应力集中的衰减至关重要，因此我们仅对孔边缘附近的初始导向器方向进行编程，并实现了应力集中系数降低高达 50%。增加编程区域的大小也增强了应力集中的衰减。这项工作提供了一种新的策略来减少具有几何缺陷的 LCE 中的应力集中。