Minimization principle for shear alignment of liquid crystals

Xingzhou Tang and Jonathan V. Selinger
Phys. Rev. E 101, 032701 – Published 4 March 2020

Abstract

If a static perturbation is applied to a liquid crystal, then the director configuration changes to minimize the free energy. If a shear flow is applied to a liquid crystal, then one might ask: Does the director configuration change to minimize any effective potential? To address that question, we derive the Leslie-Ericksen equations for dissipative dynamics and determine whether they can be expressed as relaxation toward a minimum. The answer may be yes or no, depending on the number of degrees of freedom. Using theory and simulations, we consider two specific examples, reverse tilt domains under simple shear flow and dowser configurations under plane Poiseuille flow, and we demonstrate that each example shows relaxation toward the minimum of an effective potential.

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  • Received 26 December 2019
  • Accepted 19 February 2020

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevE.101.032701

©2020 American Physical Society

Physics Subject Headings (PhySH)

  1. Research Areas
  1. Physical Systems
Polymers & Soft Matter

Authors & Affiliations

Xingzhou Tang and Jonathan V. Selinger

  • Department of Physics, Advanced Materials and Liquid Crystal Institute, Kent State University, Kent, Ohio 44242, USA

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Issue

Vol. 101, Iss. 3 — March 2020

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