ネマティック液晶の二重円筒間周方向背流の数値計算(流体工学,流体機械)

Abstract

To analyze the effect of the flow geometry on a nematic liquid crystalline flow induced by the imposition of an electric field, the numerical simulation of annular backflow between concentric cylinders has been performed using the Leslie-Ericksen continuum theory. For small values of the curvature of the cylinders, the induced backflow profile is anti-symmetric with respect to the center of the flow channel. With increasing the curvature, the backflow shows one-directional profiles. The curvature has little effect on the director orientation profile at a steady state and large effect on the profile at an unsteady state. For small values of the curvature of the cylinders, the shear stresses at the inner and outer cylinder walls are almost same, while for the large curvature, the shear stress at the outer cylinder decreases slightly and the stress at the inner cylinder takes a large value. We have investigated the flow characteristics with various values of the electric field strength, and it is found that the effect of the electric field strength on the backflow profile is similar to the curvature of the channel.