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Updated: Aug 14, 2026

Orientational Transition in a Liquid Crystal Triggered by the Thermodynamic Growth of Interfacial Wetting Sheets
Published on: May 15, 2017
Orientational instabilities in nematic liquid crystals with weak anchoring under combined action of steady flow and
I Sh Nasibullayev1, O S Tarasov, A P Krekhov
1Physikalisches Institut, Universität Bayreuth, D-95440 Bayreuth, Germany.
Abstract:
We study the homogeneous and the spatially periodic instabilities in a nematic liquid crystal layer subjected to steady plane Couette or Poiseuille flow. The initial director orientation is perpendicular to the flow plane. Weak anchoring at the confining plates and the influence of the external electric and/or magnetic field are taken into account. Approximate expressions for the critical shear rate are presented and compared with semianalytical solutions in case of Couette flow and numerical solutions of the full set of nematodynamic equations for Poiseuille flow. In particular the dependence of the type of instability and the threshold on the azimuthal and the polar anchoring strength and external fields is analyzed.
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