Mesoscopic interpretation of Fokker-Planck equation describing time behavior of liquid crystal orientation

Pattern formation from consistent dynamical closures of uniaxial nematic liquid crystals

Pattern formation in uniaxial polymeric liquid crystals is studied for different dynamic closure approximations. Using the principles of mesoscopic non-equilibrium thermodynamics in a mean-field approach, we derive a Fokker-Planck equation for the single-particle non-homogeneous distribution function of particle orientations and the evolution equations for the second and fourth order orientational tensor parameters. Afterwards, two dynamic closure approximations are discussed, one of them considering the relaxation of the fourth order orientational parameter and leading to a novel expression for the free-energy like function in terms of the scalar order parameter. Considering the evolution equation of the density of the system and values of the interaction parameter for which isotropic and nematic phases coexist, our analysis predicts that patterns and traveling waves can be produced in lyotropic uniaxial nematics even in the absence of external driving.

On the macroscopic–mesoscopic mixture of a magnetorheological fluid

This paper is concerned with the modelling of a magnetorheological (MR) fluid in the presence of an applied magnetic field as a twofolded mixture—a macroscopic fluid continuum and mesoscopic multi-solid continua. By assigning to each solid particle a vectorial mesoscopic variable, which is defined as the nearest relative position vector with respect to other particles, the solid medium of the MR fluid is further treated as a mixture consisting of different components, specified by these mesoscopic variables. The treatment of multi-solid continua is similar to that in the mesoscopic theory of liquid crystals. However, the key difference lies in the fact that the time-discontinuity of the defined vectorial mesoscopic variable will give rise to a ‘pseudo’ chemical reaction in the solid continuum. The equation of the phenomenological mesoscopic distribution function of the solid continuum then has an additional production term from the pseudo chemical reaction, analogous to the collision term appearing in the Boltzmann equation. The mesoscopic and macroscopic balance equations are then derived and by assuming the special constitutive relations the macroscopic equation for the second moment of the distribution function can be obtained.

Chaotic orientational behavior of a nematic liquid crystal subjected to a steady shear flow

Based on a relaxation equation for the second rank alignment tensor characterizing the molecular orientation in liquid crystals, we report on a number of symmetry-breaking transient states and simple periodic and irregular, chaotic out-of-plane orbits under steady flow. Both an intermittency route and a period-doubling route to chaos are found for this five-dimensional dynamic system in a certain range of parameters (shear rate, tumbling parameter at isotropic-nematic coexistence, and reduced temperature). A link to the corresponding rheochaotic states, present in complex fluids, is made.