Light-induced spontaneous bending of a simply supported liquid crystal elastomer rectangular plate

Zhao, Dong; Liu, Ying

doi:10.1103/physreve.101.042701

“…Liquid Crystal Elastomer (LCE) is a responsive material synthesized from anisotropic rod-like liquid crystal molecules and long-chain stretch polymers [ 1 , 2 , 3 , 4 , 5 , 6 ], which can respond to external stimuli, such as thermal [ 7 , 8 , 9 ], electric [ 10 , 11 ], optical [ 12 , 13 , 14 ], magnetic [ 15 ] and chemical [ 16 , 17 , 18 , 19 ] fields. LCE generally enjoys the significant advantages of quick response to deformation, deformation recoverability and noiselessness [ 20 ], and it has broad application prospects in many fields, including artificial muscles [ 21 , 22 , 23 ], microsystems and MEMS [ 24 , 25 , 26 , 27 ], actuators and sensors [ 28 , 29 , 30 , 31 , 32 , 33 ], energy harvesters [ 34 , 35 ], medical devices [ 36 , 37 ], and telescopic optical devices [ 38 , 39 ].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Beating of a Spherical Liquid Crystal Elastomer Balloon under Periodic Illumination

Cheng

¹

,

Cheng

²

,

Du

³

et al. 2022

Micromachines

2

0

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Periodic excitation is a relatively simple and common active control mode. Owing to the advantages of direct access to environmental energy and controllability under periodic illumination, it enjoys broad prospects for application in soft robotics and opto-mechanical energy conversion systems. More new oscillating systems need to be excavated to meet the various application requirements. A spherical liquid crystal elastomer (LCE) balloon model driven by periodic illumination is proposed and its periodic beating is studied theoretically. Based on the existing dynamic LCE model and the ideal gas model, the governing equation of motion for the LCE balloon is established. The numerical calculations show that periodic illumination can cause periodic beating of the LCE balloon, and the beating period of the LCE balloon depends on the illumination period. For the maximum steady-state amplitude of the beating, there exists an optimum illumination period and illumination time rate. The optimal illumination period is proved to be equivalent to the natural period of balloon oscillation. The effect of system parameters on beating amplitude are also studied. The amplitude is mainly affected by light intensity, contraction coefficient, amount of gaseous substance, volume of LCE balloon, mass density, external pressure, and damping coefficient, but not the initial velocity. It is expected that the beating LCE balloon will be suitable for the design of light-powered machines including engines, prosthetic blood pumps, aircraft, and swimmers.

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“…Liquid crystalline (LC) solids are complex materials that combine the elasticity of polymeric solids with the self-organisation of liquid crystal structures [21,34]. Due to their molecular architecture, consisting of cross-linked networks of polymeric chains containing liquid crystal mesogens, their deformations are typically large and nonlinear, and can arise spontaneously and reversibly under certain external stimuli (heat, light, solvents, electric or magnetic field) [5,14,19,20,35,45,52,53,81,88,89,95,96,105,109,111,113]. These qualities suggest many avenues for technological applications, but more research efforts are needed before they can be exploited on an industrial scale [15,28,38,40,43,64,73,79,82,86,90,93,94,108].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A plate theory for nematic liquid crystalline solids

Mihai

¹

,

Goriely

²

2020

Journal of the Mechanics and Physics of Solids

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We derive a Föppl-von Kármán-type constitutive model for solid liquid crystalline plates where the nematic director may or may not rotate freely relative to the elastic network. To obtain the reduced two-dimensional model, we rely on the deformation decomposition of a nematic solid into an elastic deformation and a natural shape change. The full solution to the resulting equilibrium equations consists of both the deformation displacement and stress fields. The model equations are applicable to a wide range of thin nematic bodies subject to optothermal stimuli and mechanical loads. For illustration, we consider certain reversible natural shape changes in simple systems which are stress free, and their counterparts, where the natural deformations are blocked and internal stresses appear. More general problems can be addressed within the same framework.

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“…Liquid crystalline (LC) solids are complex materials that combine the elasticity of polymeric solids with the self-organisation of liquid crystal structures [20,33]. Due to their molecular architecture, consisting of cross-linked networks of polymeric chains containing liquid crystal mesogens, their deformations are typically large and nonlinear, and can arise spontaneously and reversibly under certain external stimuli (heat, light, solvents, electric or magnetic field) [5,13,18,19,34,44,51,52,80,87,88,94,95,104,107,109,111]. These qualities suggest many avenues for technological applications, but more research efforts are needed before they can be exploited on an industrial scale [14,27,37,39,42,63,72,78,81,85,89,92,93,106].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A plate theory for nematic liquid crystalline solids

Mihai,

Goriely

2020

Preprint

0

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We derive a Föppl-von Kármán-type constitutive model for solid liquid crystalline plates where the nematic director may or may not rotate freely relative to the elastic network. To obtain the reduced two-dimensional model, we rely on the deformation decomposition of a nematic solid into an elastic deformation and a natural shape change. The full solution to the resulting equilibrium equations consists of both the deformation displacement and stress fields. The model equations are applicable to a wide range of thin nematic bodies subject to optothermal stimuli and mechanical loads. For illustration, we consider certain reversible natural shape changes in simple systems which are stress free, and their counterparts, where the natural deformations are blocked and internal stresses appear. More general problems can be addressed within the same framework.

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Light-induced spontaneous bending of a simply supported liquid crystal elastomer rectangular plate

Cited by 12 publications

References 40 publications

Beating of a Spherical Liquid Crystal Elastomer Balloon under Periodic Illumination

Beating of a Spherical Liquid Crystal Elastomer Balloon under Periodic Illumination

A plate theory for nematic liquid crystalline solids

A plate theory for nematic liquid crystalline solids

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