Influence of weak anchoring on flow instabilities in nematic liquid crystals

Author: Tarasov O. S.   Krekhov A. P.   Kramer L.  

Publisher: Taylor & Francis Ltd

ISSN: 0267-8292

Source: Liquid Crystals, Vol.28, Iss.6, 2001-06, pp. : 833-839

Disclaimer: Any content in publications that violate the sovereignty, the constitution or regulations of the PRC is not accepted or approved by CNPIEC.

Previous Menu Next

Abstract

We analyse the homogeneous instabilities in a nematic liquid crystal subjected to plane steady Couette or Poiseuille flow in the case when the director is prealigned perpendicular to the flow plane taking into account weak anchoring at the confining surfaces. The critical shear rate decreases for decreasing anchoring strength and goes to zero in the limit of torque-free boundary conditions. For Poiseuille flow two types of instability arise depending on the values of the azimuthal (Wa) and polar (Wp) surface anchoring strengths. The critical line in (Wa,Wp) space which separates the two instabilities regimes is obtained.