One of the scenarios of transition to the turbulent mode of the flow of liquid crystals

Abstract

Abstract The article presents the results of an experimental study of the transition to a turbulent flow regime of thin layers of nematic liquid crystals (4-octyl-4’-cyanobiphenyl) with a thickness of 20-125 μm at temperature of 39° C. The cell we used was a “sandwich”, which was assembled from three translucent glass plates separated by narrow strips of gaskets. Shear effects on the cell were carried out by the pendulum method with a frequency of 190 Hz, the phoner method was used. The analysis of the amplitude dependence of the optical signal, its spectrum, as well as the amplitude dependence of the width of the spectrum showed that low-frequency modes appear in the fluctuation spectrum, which lead to the appearance of periodic convection in the nematic liquid crystal layer.