Monodomain dynamics for rigid rod and platelet suspensions in strongly coupled coplanar linear flow and magnetic fields

Abstract

Extensional flows and magnetic fields induce similar steady alignment responses when applied to liquid crystals (LCs), liquid crystal polymers (LCPs) and nematic (rigid rod or platelet) suspensions. This observation is explained for LCs by a classical analogy, expressed as a symmetry, between hydrodynamic and magnetic fields in the Leslie-Ericksen theory [de Gennes and Prost, The Physics of Liquid Crystals (Oxford University Press, New York, 1993); Chandrasekhar, Liquid Crystals (Cambridge University Press, London, 1992)]. Our purpose here is to extend this analogy: first, to LCPs and nematic suspensions where an excluded volume potential couples either to a linear flow [Hess, Z. Naturforsch. A 31a, 1034–1037 (1976); Doi and Edwards, The Theory of Polymer Dynamics (Clarendon, Oxford, 1986)] or to a magnetic field [Bhandar and Wiest, J. Colloid Interface Sci.257, 371–382 (2003)]; and second, to the strong coupling of excluded volume interactions, planar linear flows, and a coplanar magnetic field. The gene...