Poiseuille flow of liquid crystals: Highly oscillatory regimes (Q5939072)

The authors discuss flow properties of liquid crystals in a plane Poiseuille flow. The nematic liquid crystal is treated by using Ericksen-Leslie theory with a (macroscopic) director and a variable scalar-order parameter (variable degree of order), i.e. a uniaxial nematic phase is supposed. The boundary value problem is solved numerically. The authors detect solutions with oscillatory behavior of order parameter, which are interpreted as solutions with defects. The role of Ericksen number in determining the structure of defects and oscillations of solutions is analyzed. In the limit of very large Ericksen number, a large density of defects is observed which renders the liquid crystal to be effectively isotropic, although the alignment condition is fulfilled. The author demonstrate that this property of the model does not depend on the grid, i.e. it is not a numerical effect. Such an effect has been observed experimentally in polymeric liquid crystals.