Defect-influenced particle advection in highly confined liquid crystal flows

Magdalena Lesniewska; Nigel Mottram; Oliver Henrich

doi:10.1039/d3sm01297b

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arXiv · 2310.18667

Defect-influenced particle advection in highly confined liquid crystal flows

Magdalena Lesniewska·Nigel Mottram·Oliver Henrich

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Abstract

We study the morphology of the Saturn ring defect and director structure around a colloidal particle with normal anchoring conditions and within the flow of the nematic host phase through a rectangular duct of comparable size to the particle. The changes in the defect structures and director profile influence the advection behaviour of the particle, which we compare to that in a simple Newtonian host phase. These effects lead to a non-monotonous dependence of the differential velocity of particle and fluid, also known as retardation ratio, on the Ericksen number.

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Magdalena Lesniewska, Nigel Mottram, Oliver Henrich. 2023-10-28. Defect-influenced particle advection in highly confined liquid crystal flows. https://doi.org/10.1039/d3sm01297b

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