Anchoring-induced texture \& shear banding of nematic polymers in shear cells (Q2469456)

Texture generation in sheared nematic polymers consists in the emergence of spatial gradients of the orientational distribution of the rod-shaped macromolecules. The local (monodomain) orientational properties of sheared nematic polymers are well understood; texture generation, however, is still poorly characterized. Open questions comprise identifying the lengthscales of texture and finding out whether the basic texture modes are extended structures or reside in wall boundary layers or defects. This work numerically explores texture, resolved by the second-moment of the orientational distribution, and shear banding of nematic polymers in shear cells, allowing for one-dimensional morphology in the gap between the parallel plates. We solve the coupled Navier-Stokes and Doi-Marrucci-Greco orientation tensor model, considering both confined orientation in the plane of shear and full orientation tensor degrees of freedom. Primary flow and vorticity are both considered. Here we focus on the remarkable sensitivity of texture and shear band phenomena to plate anchoring conditions on the orientational distribution. We first explore the steady in-plane flow-nematic states at low Peclet (Pe) and Ericksen (Er) numbers, for which asymptotic analysis provides exact scaling properties. We show that in-plane steady states co-exist with, and are unstable to, out-of-plane steady states. Nevertheless, they do not differ much in structure and in scaling properties. We show that orientational stresses give rise to non-Newtonian shear bands and explore them first in steady states; we find that the strength and gap location of shear bands can be tuned by changing the anchoring conditions. Next, unsteady flow-texture transitions associated with the Ericksen number cascade are explored. The critical Ericksen number for steady-to-unsteady transition, and the qualitative features of the space-time attractor are also found to strongly depend on wall anchoring conditions. Simulations highlight unsteady flow-nematic structures over 3 orders of magnitude of the Ericksen number. Shear banding and texture features for in-plane and out-of-plane states are compared, and vorticity generation in out-of-plane attractors are also studied.