Abstract
The flow of a non-tumbling nematic liquid crystal through a planar 4 : 1 contraction was simulated using the Leslie-Ericksen (L-E) continuum theory ; this theory accounts for fluid anisotropy and elastic stresses resulting from spatial distortion of the "director", which is a vector field describing average local molecular orientation. Calculations were performed for a wide range of Ericksen numbers (ratio of viscous to elastic stress), as well as for the limiting case of the Transversely Isotropic Fluid (TIF), in which elastic terms are absent. The recirculating eddy at the salient corner is larger for the L-E fluid than for the Newtonian fluid, extending to the reentrant corner for Eγ=1 and decreasing slightly in size with increasing Ericksen number. The anchoring effect of elastic stresses is such that the eddy for Eγ=1000 is still larger than that for the TIF, while the flow field throughout the domain for the TIF is essentially the same as that for the Newtonian fluid. Director orientation changes with Ericksen number, but the flow field away from the recirculating eddy is relatively insensitive to director orientation up to Eγ=1000.
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