Non-isothermal general Ericksen-Leslie system: derivation, analysis and thermodynamic consistency (Q1710401)

The authors propose an evolution PDE system accounting for the dynamics of nematic liquid crystals. They write in $\mathbb{R}_{+}\times \mathbb{R}^{d}$, $d\geq 3$, the balance of linear momentum $\rho (\partial _{t}u+u\cdot \nabla u)=\operatorname{div}(-p\operatorname{Id}+\sigma ^{E}+\sigma ^{L}) $, the conservation of mass $\partial _{t}\rho +\operatorname{div}(\rho u) =0$, the balance of linear momentum $\gamma _{1}\mathcal{N}+\gamma _{2}(\mathbb{D} n-[n\cdot \mathbb{D}n]n)+\frac{\partial \mathcal{F}}{\partial n}-\operatorname{div}\frac{\partial \mathcal{F}}{\partial \nabla n}=\beta n$, the unitary-constraint $n\cdot n=1$ on the director field $n$ and the so-called Clausius-Duhem inequality $\vartheta (\partial _{t}\eta + \operatorname{div}( u\eta ) )=\vartheta \operatorname{div}(\frac{q}{\vartheta })+\vartheta \Delta ^{\ast }$. Here, $\sigma ^{E}$ is the Ericksen tensor $\sigma ^{E}=-^{t}(\nabla n)\frac{\partial \mathcal{F}}{\partial \nabla n}$, $ \mathcal{F}$ being the Oseen-Frank energy density, $\sigma ^{L}$ is the Leslie stress tensor which depends on $n$, $\mathbb{D}$ and $\mathcal{N}$, $ \mathbb{D}=(\nabla u+^{t}\nabla u)/2$, $\mathcal{N}:=\dot{n}-\frac{ \nabla u+^{t}\nabla u}{2}n$, $\beta =(\frac{\partial \mathcal{F}}{\partial n}-\operatorname{div}\frac{\partial \mathcal{F}}{\partial \nabla n})\cdot n$. The pressure is given as $p(\rho ,\vartheta ,n,\nabla n)=\rho ^{2}\frac{\partial }{\partial \rho }(\frac{\mathcal{F}}{\rho })$. The model extends the general Ericksen-Leslie theory as a non-constant temperature $\vartheta $ is considered. Considering the first law of thermodynamics, the authors derive a condition for the entropy production $\vartheta \Delta ^{\ast }$. From the second law of thermodynamics, the authors derive conditions on the coefficients of the expression of the Leslie stress tensor $\sigma ^{L}$ and of the heat flux $q$. The main result proves the existence of a unique global-in-time strong solution under smallness hypothesis on the initial data in Besov spaces and on a coefficient of the Leslie tensor $ \sigma ^{L}$. The authors first recall properties of the Besov spaces. Then they prove existence results in Besov spaces for the linear parabolic equation $ \partial _{t}\phi -\Lambda \phi =f$ posed in $\mathbb{R}_{+}\times \mathbb{R} ^{d}$, where $\Lambda $ is a strongly second-order elliptic operator under different hypotheses on the initial data and on $\Lambda $. The main steps of the proof of the existence result are the derivation of estimates from the different balance and conservation equations.