Nonhomogeneous shear flow in concentrated liquid-crystalline solutions
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abstract
The dynamics of concentrated solutions of rodlike molecules in nonhomogeneous shear flow are explored using a consistent numerical simulation of the Doi diffusion equation and the nonhomogeneous Onsager model of excluded-volume rod interactions. Simulations of planar, wall-driven shear flow show that out-of-plane structure instabilities occur when nematic anchoring constraints at the boundaries are removed. A new composite state with misaligned logrolling and flow-aligning domains is observed for pressure-driven flow in a planar channel. These results mark the first use of the Doi diffusion equation to show how a nonhomogeneous flow field generates sharp inter-domain interfaces analogous to those observed in rheological experiments.
