2006 AIChE Annual Meeting

(247a) Computational Studies of the Motion of a Nematic Lcp in a Simple Shear Device

Authors

Leal, L. G. - Presenter, University of California, Santa Barbara
Klein, D. H., University of California Santa Barbara
We report on fully 3D numerical solutions for the motion of a model nematic LCP in a simple shear flow device. The solutions are fully coupled, including both the flow and the material microstructure as unknowns. They show, for the first time, a prediction of the formation of a complete disclination loop, thus providing an understanding of previous results, which were restricted to spatial gradients in the vorticity-velocity gradient plane. Comparisons with experimental data shows that there is a much better correspondence with measured conditions for the various flow and microstructure transitions that are observed.