Related papers: Microfluidic control over topological states in ch…
Microfluidic systems are usually fabricated with soft materials that deform due to the fluid stresses. Recent experimental and theoretical studies on the steady flow in shallow deformable microchannels have shown that the flow rate is a…
Coupling between flow and orientation is a central issue in understanding the collective dynamics of active biofilaments and cells. Active stresses generated by motor activity destroy (quasi-)long-range orientational order and induce…
Instabilities of fluid-fluid interfaces are ubiquitous in passive soft matter. Adding activity to the interface or either fluid can dramatically change the stability of the interface. Using experiment and theory, we investigate the…
Viscoelastic flows transition from steady to time-dependent, chaotic dynamics under critical flow conditions, but the implications of geometric disorder for flow stability in these systems are unknown. Utilizing microfluidics, we flow a…
We revisit the theory of ion transport in parallel-plate channels and also discuss how the wettability of a solid and the mobility of adsorbed surface charges impact the transport of ions. It is shown that depending on the ratio of the…
We show that back-flow, the coupling between the order parameter and the velocity fields, has a significant effect on the motion of defects in nematic liquid crystals. In particular the defect speed can depend strongly on the topological…
A microfluidic approach to probing the first normal stress difference from single-point pressure measurements in transient shear flows is presented. Using an original experimental design, we examine the near-zero-mean pulsatile flow of…
We have employed the Density Functional Theory formalism to investigate the nematic-isotropic capillary transitions of a nematogen confined by walls that favor antagonist orientations to the liquid crystal molecules (hybrid cell). We…
Boundary conditions dictate how fluids, including liquid crystals, flow when pumped through a channel. Can boundary conditions also be used to control internally driven active fluids that generate flows spontaneously? By using numerical…
The dynamic transition between the ordered flow and the plastic flow is studied for a two-dimensional driven vortex lattice, in the presence of sharp and dense pinning centers, from numerical simulations. For this system, which does not…
In nematic liquid crystals (NLCs), topological defects of a chiral origin play a role in phase transitions and lead to phase configurations of nontrivial topology, like those in neutron stars and helium in the A-phase. In the…
Particle-like chiral magnetic skyrmions can flow in nanotracks and behave like chiral fluids. Using interacting flows to perform logical operations is an important topic in microfluidics and nanofluidics. Here, we report a basic nanofluidic…
The shape of a microchannel during flow through it is instrumental to understanding the physics that govern various phenomena ranging from rheological measurements of fluids to separation of particles and cells. Two commonly used approaches…
The effect of rough walls on the phase behaviour of a confined liquid crystal (LC) fluid is studied using constant pressure Monte Carlo simulations. The LC is modelled as a fluid of soft ellipsoidal molecules and the rough walls are…
Active fluids display spontaneous turbulent-like flows known as active turbulence. Recent work revealed that these flows have universal features, independent of the material properties and of the presence of topological defects. However,…
Dispersions of rodlike colloidal particles exhibit a plethora of liquid crystalline states, including nematic, smectic A, smectic B, and columnar phases. This phase behavior can be explained by presuming the predominance of hard-core volume…
The transition from a nematic to an isotropic state in a self-closing spherical liquid crystal shell with tangential alignment is a stimulating phenomenon to investigate, as the topology dictates that the shell exhibits local isotropic…
We use the Parsons Lee modification of Onsagers second virial theory within the restricted orientation approximation to analyse the phase behaviour of hard cylindrical rods confined in narrow pores Depending on the wall to wall separation…
We use density-functional theory, of the fundamental-measure type, to study the relative stability of the biaxial nematic phase, with respect to non-uniform phases such as smectic and columnar, in fluids made of hard board-like particles…
Ferroelectric nematic liquid crystals are formed by achiral molecules with large dipole moments. Its three-dimensional orientational order is universally described as unidirectionally polar. We demonstrate that the ground state of…