No Arabic abstract
We investigate actuation of woven fabrics including active Janus fibres with an imposed twist, which bend in variable directions upon phase transition between isotropic and nematic state. The essential feature of textiles incorporating a pair of Janus fibres with a mismatched pitch or handedness of coiling is the existence of multiple stable shapes with different energies within a certain range of the extension coefficient. If the active fibres are closed into a ring, torsion develops to accommodate adjustment of the direction of bending. The structure is generally stabilised by adding more passive filaments, and multistability is observed also in this case.
We describe reshaping of active textiles actuated by bending of Janus fibres comprising both active and passive components. A great variety of shapes, determined by minimising the overall energy of the fabric, can be produced by varying bending directions determined by the orientation of Janus fibres. Under certain conditions, alternative equilibrium states, one absolutely stable and the other metastable coexist, and their relative energy may flip its sign as system parameters, such as the extension upon actuation, change. A snap-through reshaping in a specially structured textile reproduces the Venus flytrap effect.
We consider reshaping of closed Janus filaments acquiring intrinsic curvature upon actuation of an active component -- a nematic elastomer elongating upon phase transition. Linear stability analysis establishes instability thresholds of circles with no imposed twist, dependent on the ratio $q$ of the intrinsic curvature to the inverse radius of the original circle. Twisted circles are proven to be absolutely unstable but the linear analysis well predicts the dependence of the looping number of the emerging configurations on the imposed twist. Modeling stable configurations by relaxing numerically the overall elastic energy detects multiple stable and metastable states with different looping numbers. The bifurcation of untwisted circles turns out to be subcritical, so that nonplanar shapes with a lower energy exist at $q$ below the critical value. The looping number of stable shapes generally increases with $q$.
The diffusion of an artificial active particle in a two-dimensional periodic pattern of stationary convection cells is investigated by means of extensive numerical simulations. In the limit of large Peclet numbers, i.e., for self-propulsion speeds below a certain depinning threshold and weak roto-translational fluctuations, the particle undergoes asymptotic normal diffusion with diffusion constant proportional to the square root of its diffusion constant at zero flow. Chirality effects in the propulsion mechanism, modeled here by a tunable applied torque, favors particles jumping between adjacent convection rolls. Roll jumping is signaled by an excess diffusion peak, which appears to separate two distinct active diffusion regimes for low and high chirality. A qualitative interpretation of our simulation results is proposed as a first step toward a fully analytical study of this phenomenon.
Liquid crystal elastomers/glasses are active materials that can have significant metric change upon stimulation. The local metric change is determined by its director pattern that describes the ordering direction and hence the direction of contraction. We study logarithmic spiral patterns on flat sheets that evolve into cones on deformation, with Gaussian curvature localized at tips. Such surfaces, Gaussian flat except at their tips, can be combined to give compound surfaces with GC concentrated in lines. We characterize all possible metric-compatible interfaces between two spiral patterns, specifically where the same metric change occurs on each side. They are classified as hyperbolic-type, elliptic-type, concentric spiral, and continuous-director interfaces. Upon the cone deformations and additional isometries, the actuated interfaces form creases bearing non-vanishing concentrated Gaussian curvature, which is formulated analytically for all cases and simulated numerically for some examples. Analytical calculations and the simulations agree qualitatively well. Furthermore, the relaxation of Gaussian-curved creases is discussed and cantilevers with Gaussian curvature-enhanced strength are proposed. Taken together, our results provide new insights in the study of curved creases, lines bearing Gaussian curvature, and their mechanics arising in actuated liquid crystal elastomers/glasses, and other related active systems.
We investigate the transport diffusivity of artificial microswimmers, a.k.a. Janus particles, moving in a sinusoidal channel in the absence of external biases. Their diffusion constant turns out to be quite sensitive to the self-propulsion mechanism and the geometry of the channel compartments. Our analysis thus suggests how to best control the diffusion of active Brownian motion in confined geometries.