Effects of director orientation on the vibration of anisotropic nematic elastomer plates under various boundary conditions

Abstract

Nematic elastomer (NE) is a kind of smart materials which is easily actuated by external fields and generates considerable force. In the present discussion, the vibration of a nematic plate is investigated with the aim to the prospective controlling for energy harvest and transferring. Based on the anisotropic Timoshenko, Reissner–Mindlin plate theory and linear hydrodynamics and viscoelasticity of nematic elastomer in low frequency limit, the governing equation is derived and solved by a hybrid analytical-numerical method under various boundary conditions. The effects of intrinsic parameters like anisotropic parameter, director rotation time and boundary condition on the vibration characteristics of NE plates are discussed in detail. The results give a well indication between the vibration performance and the director dissipation, which is definitely different from classical isotropic viscoelastic plate. This work provides effective information in the process of dynamic design and development of NE-based devices.

Actuated bending of a long cantilevered glassy nematic bilayer strip: failure of the beam model

“…Nematic glasses are highly cross-linked liquid crystal polymer networks with Yong's moduli of a few gigapascals [1][2][3][4]. These materials contract and expand respectively along and normal to the director when illuminated, and therefore are very appealing for actuation applications [5][6][7][8][9][10][11]. To create out-of-plane deformation of a nematic sheet, gradient director field through the thickness is needed to induce spontaneous bending moments.…”

Photomechanical vibration energy harvesting based on liquid crystal elastomer cantilever

“…Along with the development of light sensitive composites, it provides the prospective possibility to transform the sunlight energy to other energy, such as mechanical energy, electrical energy, etc. Considering the sensitive and reversible response to light, liquid crystal elastomer (LCE) is one excellent choice and its photomechanical vibration attracts increasing interests, which directly convert light energy into mechanical output for use in sportswear, robotics, and numerous applications like artificial muscles, micro-and nano-machines without the battery, motor or gears [3][4][5][6][7].…”