Self-sustained chaotic floating of a liquid crystal elastomer balloon under steady illumination

• DOI: 10.1016/j.heliyon.2023.e14447
• Publication Date: 2023-03-10T02:28:24Z
• Authors: Peibao Xu; Haiyang Wu; Yuntong Dai; Kai Li
• Keywords: H1-99; Science (General); Self-sustained oscillation; 9. Industry and infrastructure; 7. Clean energy; 12. Responsible consumption; Liquid crystal elastomer; Social sciences (General); Q1-390; Floating; Light-powered; Chaos; Balloon; Research Article

Self-sustained chaotic system has the capability to maintain its own motion through directly absorbing energy from the steady external environment, showing extensive application potential in energy harvesters, self-cleaning, biomimetic robots, encrypted communication and other fields. In this paper, a novel light-powered chaotic self-floating system is proposed by virtue of a nonlinear spring and a liquid crystal elastomer (LCE) balloon, which is capable of self-floating under steady illumination due to self-beating. The corresponding theoretical model is formulated by combining dynamic LCE model and Newtonian dynamics. Numerical calculations show that the periodic self-floating of LCE balloon can occur under steady illumination, which is attributed to the light-powered self-beating of LCE balloon with shading coating. Furthermore, the chaotic self-floating is presented to be developed from the periodic self-floating through period doubling bifurcation. In addition, the effects of system parameters on the self-floating behaviors of the system are also investigated. The detailed calculations demonstrate that the regime of self-floating LCE balloon depends on a combination of system parameters. The chaotic self-floating system of current study may inspire the design of other chaotic self-sustained motion based on stimuli-responsive materials, and have guiding significance for energy harvesters, self-cleaning, biomimetic robots, encrypted communication and other applications.