Active textiles with Janus fibres

TL;DR

This paper explores how Janus fibres in active textiles can be used to produce diverse shapes and dynamic responses, including snap-through effects, by controlling fibre orientation and energy minimization.

Contribution

It introduces a novel approach to shape-shifting textiles using Janus fibres with tunable energy states and demonstrates complex shape transformations like the Venus flytrap effect.

Findings

Multiple stable and metastable states coexist in the textile system.

Shape transformations can be controlled by fibre orientation and actuation parameters.

The textile can exhibit snap-through behavior similar to biological mechanisms.

Abstract

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.