Thermomechanically Excited Vortical Flow in a Hybrid-Oriented Nematic Channel

Abstract

In this paper, we described numerically several scenarios of formation of vortex flows (VF) in microsized hybrid-oriented liquid crystal (HOLC) channels with orientation defects using a nonlinear generalization of the classical Ericksen–Leslie theory that allows taking into account termomechanical contribution, both in the expression for the shear stress and in the entropy balance equation. An analysis of the numerical results showed that there are two or one vortices in the HOLC channel although two vortices directed towards each other are generated at the initial stage of the VT formation Thermomechanically Excited Vortical Flow.