DYNAMICAL PHENOMENA IN LIQUID-CRYSTALLINE MATERIALS

Abstract

▪ Abstract  Recent progress in modeling and simulation of the flow of nematic liquid crystals is presented. The Leslie-Ericksen (LE) theory has been successful in elucidating the flow of low molar-mass nematics. The theoretical framework for the flow of polymeric nematic liquid crystals is still evolving; extensions of the Doi theory capture qualitative features of the flow of polymeric nematics in simple geometries, but these theories have not been shown to predict texture development in flow. Mesoscopic theories for textured materials based on spatial averaging capture only some qualitative features of nonrectilinear liquid-crystalline polymer flow. Interfacial effects in liquid-crystalline systems have begun to receive attention in the context of interfacial viscoelasticity and the dynamics of dispersed liquid-crystalline polymers in immiscible blends.