Hydrodynamic model for surface nematic viscosity

Abstract

We propose a hydrodynamic model that justifies the surface viscosity already introduced as a phenomenological parameter in the surface dynamics of nematic liquid crystals. In this model the surface orienting field of a substrate is assumed to be diluted in a thin boundary layer that is described by the balance equations of the Ericksen-Leslie theory. A two-dimensional description is then recovered from this three-dimensional model: it indicates the premises on which a general theory of surface dynamics could be developed.