TY - JOUR
T1 - Embedding intelligence in materials for responsive built environment
T2 - A topical review on Liquid Crystal Elastomer actuators and sensors
AU - Schwartz, Mathew
AU - Lagerwall, Jan P.F.
N1 - Funding Information:
JPFL gratefully acknowledges financial support from the European Research Council under the European Union Seventh Framework Programme (FP/2007-2013)/ERC Grant Agreement no. 648763 (consolidator project INTERACT) and the Horizon Europe Framework Programme/ERC Grant Agreement no. 101069416 (Proof of Concept project REVEAL).
Publisher Copyright:
© 2022
PY - 2022/12
Y1 - 2022/12
N2 - Liquid Crystal Elastomers (LCEs) are an exciting category of material that has tremendous application potential across a variety of fields, owing to their unique properties that enable both sensing and actuation. To some, LCEs are simply another type of Shape Memory Polymer, while to others they are an interesting on-going scientific experiment. In this visionary article, we bring an interdisciplinary discussion around creative and impactful ways that LCEs can be applied in the Built Environment to support kinematic and kinetic buildings and situational awareness. We focus particularly on the autonomy made possible by using LCEs, potentially removing needs for motors, wiring and tubing, and even enabling fully independent operation in response to natural environment variations, requiring no power sources. To illustrate the potential, we propose a number of concrete application scenarios where LCEs could offer innovative solutions to problems of great societal importance, such as autonomous active ventilation, heliotropic solar panel systems which can also remove snow or sand autonomously, and invisible coatings with strain mapping functionality, alerting residents in case of dangerous (static or dynamic) loads on roofs or windows, as well as assisting building safety inspection teams after earthquakes.
AB - Liquid Crystal Elastomers (LCEs) are an exciting category of material that has tremendous application potential across a variety of fields, owing to their unique properties that enable both sensing and actuation. To some, LCEs are simply another type of Shape Memory Polymer, while to others they are an interesting on-going scientific experiment. In this visionary article, we bring an interdisciplinary discussion around creative and impactful ways that LCEs can be applied in the Built Environment to support kinematic and kinetic buildings and situational awareness. We focus particularly on the autonomy made possible by using LCEs, potentially removing needs for motors, wiring and tubing, and even enabling fully independent operation in response to natural environment variations, requiring no power sources. To illustrate the potential, we propose a number of concrete application scenarios where LCEs could offer innovative solutions to problems of great societal importance, such as autonomous active ventilation, heliotropic solar panel systems which can also remove snow or sand autonomously, and invisible coatings with strain mapping functionality, alerting residents in case of dangerous (static or dynamic) loads on roofs or windows, as well as assisting building safety inspection teams after earthquakes.
KW - Cholesteric structural color
KW - Embedded control
KW - Kinetic buildings
KW - Liquid Crystal Elastomers
KW - Responsive materials
KW - Shape memory polymers
KW - Situational awareness
KW - Soft actuation
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U2 - 10.1016/j.buildenv.2022.109714
DO - 10.1016/j.buildenv.2022.109714
M3 - Review article
AN - SCOPUS:85143847606
SN - 0360-1323
VL - 226
JO - Building and Environment
JF - Building and Environment
M1 - 109714
ER -