Effect of hydrodynamic flow on kinetics of nematic-isotropic transition in liquid crystals

doi:10.1007/s100510050168

EPJ

J.-i. Fukuda^a

Department of Physics, Kyoto University, Kyoto 606-01, Japan

Received: 8 September 1997
Revised: 23 October 1997
Accepted: 3 November 1997
Published online: 15 January 1998

Abstract

We investigate kinetics of nematic-isotropic transition by solving the hydrodynamic equations for the nematic 3 X 3 tensor order parameter

and the fluid velocity in two space dimension (x-y plane). Numerical results indicate that nematic directors tend to align parallel to the x-y plane when hydrodynamic flow is incorporated. Late stage growth exponents,

for the correlation length and

for the number of topological defects, are not significantly altered by hydrodynamic flow. However, in contrast to the case without flow, the relation

holds well, which may indicate the validity of dynamical scaling for the case with hydrodynamic flow.