Answers are grounded in this paper and cite their sources.
A scheme based on nemato-mechanical conversion has been proposed for potential artificial muscle applications (de Gennes P.-G., Hébert M. and Kant R., to appear in Macromol. Symp. (1996)). As the temperature in a nematic gel is reduced through the transition temperature, strong uniaxial deformation is encountered. We briefly expose the dynamics of contraction/elongation in this system. Work and dissipative losses are calculated for an operating cycle to get an approximative expression of the ratio work/losses, which can then be compared with real muscular efficiencies.
No takes yet. Share an insight, caveat, or question.
Hébert et al. (1997) studied this question.
Synapse has enriched 10 related papers. Consider them for comparative context: