Flow-induced delayed Freedericksz transition

Mottram, Nigel and McKay, Geoffrey and Brown, Carl and Russell, Craig and Sage, Ian (2016) Flow-induced delayed Freedericksz transition. Physical Review E, 93 (3). 030701(R). ISSN 2470-0053 (https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevE.93.030701)

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Abstract

We demonstrate that a compact manometer experiment allows direct observation of a delay to the classical electric field induced Freedericksz transition produced by flow in a highly dispersive nematic liquid crystal layer. The Ericksen-Leslie equations are used to show that a flow aligning torque generated in the nematic layer under Poiseuille flow competes with the orthogonal electric field re-orientation torque. This model fully reproduces the experimental results using only self-consistently determined viscosity values, and predicts a more generally applicable expression for the dependence of the delay Ec ∝√(ζ/Δχe) on the shear rate ζ and on the electric susceptibility anisotropy Δχe..

ORCID iDs

Mottram, Nigel ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7265-0059, McKay, Geoffrey ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3807-6890, Brown, Carl, Russell, Craig and Sage, Ian;
  • Item type:Article
    ID code:55534
    Dates:
    Date
    Event
    15 March 2016
    Published
    5 February 2016
    Accepted
    Subjects:Science > Physics
    Department:Faculty of Science > Mathematics and Statistics
    Depositing user: Pure Administrator
    Date deposited:15 Feb 2016 13:15
    Last modified:11 Nov 2024 11:19
    URI:https://strathprints.strath.ac.uk/id/eprint/55534
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