Abstract
As a purpose of developing micro-actuators driven by liquid crystals, unsteady behaviors of a nematic liquid crystal between two parallel plates under an electric field are investigated both numerically and experimentally. Imposition of the electric field on the liquid crystal induces flows, whose profile and magnitude depend strongly on the twist angle of the director ; that is, the velocity profile between plates is S-shaped and the maximum velocity is about 80 μm/s when the twist angle is 0 deg. On the other hand, unidirectional flow is generated and the maximum velocity is 350 μm/s when the twist angle is 180 deg. Generation of flow is confirmed by means of a flow visualization experiment. Mechanism of the generation of flow can be explained by the consideration that the rotation of liquid crystalline molecules generated by imposition of an electric field induces local velocity gradient.
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