Four plausible design concepts are applied together to investigate composite bend–twist propeller-blade designs that show high twisting per bending deflection. The design concepts are first explained on a simplified blade structure with limited...
Flutter is an instability phenomenon that can occur in wind turbine blades due to fluid–structure interaction, particularly for longer and more flexible blades. Aeroelastic tailoring through bend–twist coupling is an effective method to e...
Small-scale wind turbines (SWTs) represent a promising solution for the energy transition and the decentralization of electricity generation in non-interconnected areas. Conventional strategies to improve SWT performance often rely on active pitch co...
The idea of improving the energy output for small wind turbines without compromising the remaining aspects of the technology, such as costs and structural integrity, is very appealing in the context of the growing concern for global warming and the g...
Adaptive composite propeller blades showing bend twist behaviour have received increasing interest from hydrodynamic and structural engineers. When exposed to periodic loading conditions, such propellers can be designed to have higher energy efficien...
In this review we consider the relationships between molecular structure and the tendency of liquid crystal dimers to exhibit smectic phases, and show how our application of these led to the recent discovery of the twist-bend, heliconical smectic pha...
New fluid states of matter, now known as liquid crystals, were discovered at the end of the 19th century and still provide strong themes in scientific research. The applications of liquid crystals continue to attract attention, and the most successfu...
The second, lower-temperature nematic phase observed in nonlinear dimer liquid crystals has properties originating from nanoscale, polar, intermolecular packing preferences. It fits the description of a new liquid crystal phase discovered by Vanakara...
A selection of novel non-symmetric supramolecular liquid crystal dimers and trimers formed by hydrogen-bonding have been prepared and their phase behaviour characterised by polarised optical microscopy, X-ray diffraction and temperature-dependent Fou...
The twist-bend nematic (NTB) phase of bent-shaped molecules has recently attracted much attention due to the spontaneous bend of its director field and the doubly-degenerate chirality of its heliconical structure. Despite intensive experimental and t...
The discovery of the twist-bend nematic phase (NTB) is a milestone within the field of liquid crystals. The NTB phase has a helical structure, with a repeat length of a few nanometres, and is therefore chiral, even when formed by achiral molecules. T...
Nematic twist-bend phases (NTB) are new types of nematic liquid crystalline phases with attractive properties for future electro-optic applications. However, most of these states are monotropic or are stable only in a narrow high temperature range. T...
The twist-bend nematic liquid crystal phase is a three-dimensional fluid in which achiral bent molecules spontaneously form an orientationally ordered, macroscopically chiral, heliconical winding of a ten nanometer-scale pitch in the absence of posit...
Manual harvesting of white button mushrooms involves coordinated bending and twisting motions to detach the fruiting body while minimizing surface damage; however, replicating these actions in automated systems remains challenging. In this study, a v...
Bent-shaped liquid crystal (LC) dimers, trimers, and oligomers are intriguing because of their unique liquid crystallinities, which have gained further impetus after the identification of the twist-bend nematic (NTB) phase in these molecules. LC trim...
The twist–bend nematic (NTB) phase is a liquid crystal (LC) phase with a heliconical structure that typically forms below the temperature of the conventional nematic (N) phase. By contrast, the direct transition between the NTB and isotropic (I...
The twist-bend nematic phase (NTB) exhibits a complicated hierarchy of structures responsible for several intriguing properties presented here. These are: the observation of a fast electrooptic response, the exhibition of a large electroclinic effect...
This work aims to determine how the nematic twist-bend phase (NTB) of bismesogens containing two rigid parts of cyanobiphenyls connected with a linking chain containing n = 7, 9, and 11 methylene groups behaves in mixtures with structurally similar c...
In this study, we employed density functional theory (DFT), a standard method in quantum chemistry, to investigate the structural intricacies of thioether-linked naphthalene-based liquid-crystal dimers. The theoretical analysis included the calculati...
Photoisomerizable molecules in liquid crystals (LCs) allow for photoinduced phase transitions, facilitating applications in a wide variety of photoresponsive materials. In contrast to the widely investigated azobenzene structure, research on the phot...
We report the first homologous series of methylene-linked cyanobiphenyl- and cyanoterphenyl-based liquid crystal (LC) dimers (CBnCT). To induce the heliconical twist-bend nematic (NTB) phase through bent molecular shapes, the CBnCT homologs have an o...
The deformable input provides users with the ability of physical operation equipment to interact with the system. In order to facilitate further development in flexible display interactive technology, we devised FlexSheet, an input device that can si...
Soft pneumatic network (Pneu-net) actuators are frequently used to achieve sophisticated movements, but they face challenges in producing both bending and twisting motions concurrently. In this paper, we present a new Pneu-net twisting and bending ac...
This paper focuses on the twist defects and the control strategy in the process of four-roll bending for aluminum alloy Z-section profiles with large cross-section. A 3D finite element model (3D-FEM) of roll bending process has been developed, on the...
To address the challenge that existing soft grippers have difficulty achieving fine manipulation comparable to the human finger’s “circular twisting” motion, this paper proposes a four-chamber spatial bending soft actuator based on...
We report the first examples of bent-shaped LC dimers based on a seven-membered bridged stilbene. We synthesized nonylene- and ether-linked cyano-terminated dimers (sC9-tCN and sOC7O-tCN, respectively) and a homologous series of nonylene-linked alkyl...
The performance of low-pressure axial flow fans is directly affected by the three-dimensional bending and twisting of the blades. A new blade design method is adopted in this work, where the radial distribution of blade angle and blade bending angle...
In recent years, a number of achiral liquid crystal dimer molecules have been shown to exhibit nematic–nematic phase transitions. The lower temperature phase has been identified as the N
The formation of the nematic to twist-bend nematic (NTB) phase has emerged as a fascinating phenomenon in the field of supramolecular chemistry, based on complex intermolecular interactions. Through a careful analysis of molecular structures and dyna...
The nature of the nanoscale structural organization in modulated nematic phases formed by molecules having a nonlinear molecular architecture is a central issue in contemporary liquid crystal research. Nevertheless, the elucidation of the molecular o...
Orthotropic laminates are highly desirable in composite structures because they eliminate bending–twisting coupling, simplify structural behavior, improve analytical predictability, and facilitate structural design, optimization, and certificat...
The mission performance of future advanced aerospace structures can be synthetically improved via active shape control utilizing piezoelectric materials. Multiple work modes are required. Bending/twisting mode control receives special attention for m...
This study investigated the preparation of bacterial nanocellulose yarn, a high-strength and high-modulus cellulose-based textile material. Compared with the previously used wet spinning and electrospinning methods, the film-cutting, drawing and twis...
Nematic liquid crystals possess only orientational order. In liquid crystal cells, their texture is mainly controlled by anchoring conditions and by the values of the Frank elastic constants. Given homogeneous boundary conditions, nematic liquid crys...
We develop a theoretical model for the flexoelectric instability in bent-core nematic liquid crystals, focusing on the coupling between elastic distortions and an external electric field through flexoelectric polarization. The analysis is carried out...
Polarized beam infrared (IR) spectroscopy provides valuable information on changes in the orientation of samples in nematic phases, especially on the role of intermolecular interactions in forming the periodically modulated twist–bent phase. In...
Liquid crystalline dimers and dimesogens have attracted significant attention due to their tendency to exhibit twist-bend modulated nematic (NTB) phases. While the features that give rise to NTB phase formation are now somewhat understood, a comparab...
Analytical calculations were performed on carbon fiber-reinforced polymer (CFRP) laminates in an asymmetrical configuration. The asymmetric configuration of composites was investigated, where extension–twisting and extension–bending coupl...
A intensity-modulated optical fiber relative humidity (RH) sensor based on the side coupling induction technology (SCIT) is presented and experimentally demonstrated. The agarose gel and the twisted macro-bend coupling structure are first combined fo...
We propose a new type of soft actuator based on carbon nanotube (CNT) composite paper (CNTCP), i.e., a paper actuator. In our previous study, we demonstrated that actuator operation was possible when using CNTCPs as electrodes with ordinary paper con...
This study develops and characterizes the distinctive mechanical features of a stainless-steel metal stent with a tailored structure. A high-precision femtosecond laser was used to micromachine a stent with re-entrant hexagonal (auxetic) cell geometr...
Soft fiber-reinforced actuators have demonstrated significant potential across various robotics applications. However, the actuation motion in these actuators is typically limited to a single type of motion behavior, such as bending, extending, and t...
Liquid crystal (LC) droplets are highly attractive for applications in privacy windows, optical switches, optical vortices, optical microresonators, microlenses, and biosensors due to their ease of fabrication and easy alignment at surfaces. This rev...
We report the synthesis, phase-transition behavior, and mesophase structures of the first homologous series of thioether-linked liquid crystal (LC) trimers, 4,4′-bis[ω-(4-cyanobiphenyl-4′-ylthio)alkoxy]biphenyls (CBSnOBOnSCB with a...
While the third generation of advanced high-strength steels (3rd Gen AHSS) have increasingly gained attention for automotive lightweighting, it remains unclear to what extent the developed methodologies for the conventional dual-phase (DP) steels are...
In order to resist bubble loading, anisotropic composite materials are the development direction of the future. The objective of this paper was to experimentally investigate the hydrodynamic performance of anisotropic laminate composite plates, with...
The intensity-based fiber optic sensor (FOS) head using twisted dual-cycle bending loss is proposed and experimentally demonstrate. The bending loss characteristics depend on the steel wire radius, number, and distance. To determine the effects of th...
This paper aims at experimental and numerical research of delamination process in carbon/epoxy composite laminates with different fiber orientation angles in stacking sequence exhibiting the bending–twisting elastic couplings. Experimental spec...
The functional valorization of waste fabrics, particularly their conversion into flexible low-cost, high-performance electrodes, holds significant promise for resource sustainability and the development of advanced energy technologies. Here, a NiB/Cu...
Photonic crystal fiber sensors have potential application in environmental monitoring, industry, biomedicine, food preservation, and many more. These sensors work based on advanced and flexible phototonic crystal fiber (PCF) structures, controlled li...
of 5