On the simulation of nematic liquid crystalline flows in a 4:1 planar contraction using the Leslie–Ericksen and Beris–Edwards models

Electrically-driven modulation of flow patterns in liquid crystal microfludics

“…Boundary and initial conditions We use no-slip boundary conditions for the velocity on all walls in each configuration. Perfect ordering of the LC is assumed on the boundary and homeotropic anchoring with infinite strength is imposed in the rectangular channel; this is consistent with our previous research 24 , 25 , 44 , 45 and other researchers who have investigated the rheology of liquid crystals (Denniston and Yeomans 32 , 34 , Rey and coworkers 46 – 48 , and Sengupta and coworkers 22 , 23 ).…”

“…Numerical solutions were obtained using the OpenFOAM solver rheoFoamLC 43 . The solver has been previously used to model liquid crystal flows in other complex geometries 44 , and is capable of capturing defects 25 , 45 . Combination of the extended definition of the free energy (Eq.…”

Curvature-mediated programming of liquid crystal microflows

“…Numerical solutions were obtained using the OpenFOAM solver rheoFoamLC. 58 The solver was it initially based on the director framework of microstructure representation, 55 but its extensions allow for incorporating the Q -tensor description; 39 the approach is capable of predicting flow-induced defects. 39 The system is initialized with an isotropic microstructure and static flow conditions ( Q = 0, u = 0).…”

“…58 The solver was it initially based on the director framework of microstructure representation, 55 but its extensions allow for incorporating the Q -tensor description; 39 the approach is capable of predicting flow-induced defects. 39 The system is initialized with an isotropic microstructure and static flow conditions ( Q = 0, u = 0). No-slip conditions for the velocity and strong homeotropic anchoring were imposed on all walls.…”

“…Historically, NLC studies were motivated by the development of liquid display devices, where flat channels (width c height) simplified the problem to two dimensions, [33][34][35][36][37][38][39] however with limited relevance to real microfluidic settings, where the channel height and width are comparable. 11,40,41 While these recent efforts have successfully attained tunable LC flows by combining appropriate surface anchoring, confinements, and hydrodynamic forcing, the role of channel curvature has been explored in little detail.…”