Related papers: Boundary-roughness effects in nematic liquid cryst…
We study stability and distortions of liquid crystal nematic order in a cell with a random heterogeneous substrate. Modeling this system as a bulk xy model with quenched disorder confined to a surface, we find that nematic order is…
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…
This review introduces the elasticity theory of two-dimensional crystals and nematic liquid crystals on curved surfaces, the energetics of topological defects (disclinations, dislocations and pleats) in these ordered phases, and the…
Surface-induced profiles of both nematic and smectic order parameters in a nematic liquid crystal, ranging from an orienting substrate to "infinity", were evaluated numerically on base of an extended Landau theory. In order to obtain a…
The flow of emulsions in confined microfluidic channels is affected by surface roughness. Directional roughness effects have recently been reported in channels with asymmetric boundary conditions featuring a flat wall, and a wall textured…
There is a recent interest in studying odd elasticity in soft solids. Current focus has been on simple solids. However, many soft solids are structured and can exhibit nematic elasticity or viscoelasticity. Here we generalize the concept of…
Motivated by recent experiments on the rod-like virus bacteriophage fd, confined to circular and annular domains, we present a theoretical study of structural transitions in these geometries. Using the continuum theory of nematic liquid…
By means of mesoscopic numerical simulations of a model soft-glassy material, we investigate the role of boundary roughness on the flow behaviour of the material, probing the bulk/wall and global/local rheologies. We show that the roughness…
Instabilities in thin elastic sheets, such as wrinkles, are of broad interest both from a fundamental viewpoint and also because of their potential for engineering applications. Nematic liquid crystal elastomers offer a new form of control…
A spontaneous buckling transition in thin layers of monodomain nematic liquid crystalline gel was observed by polarized light microscopy. The coupling between the orientational ordering of liquid crystalline solvent and the translational…
We present a Monte Carlo study of external surface anchoring in nematic cells with partially disordered solid substrates, as well as of intrinsic anchoring at free nematic interfaces. The simulations are based on the simple hexagonal…
Surface tension tends to minimize the area of interfaces between pieces of matter in different thermodynamic phases, be they in the solid or the liquid state. This can be relevant for the macroscopic shape of very soft solids, and lead to a…
We report an experimental study of the development of orientational order in a crumpled sheet, with a particular focus on the role played by the geometry of confinement. Our experiments are performed on elastomeric sheets immersed in a…
We analyse the influence of a surface viscosity on the orientational dynamics of a nematic liquid crystal subjected to an oscillatory Couette flow. Approximate analytical solutions of nematohydrodynamic equations for small flow amplitudes…
The lubrication theory is mostly concerned with the behavior of a lubricant flowing through a narrow gap. Motivated by the experimental findings from the tribology literature, we take the lubricant to be micropolar fluid and study its…
Nematic liquid crystals confined to geometrically as well as chemically patterned substrate on one end and a flat substrate with strong anchoring on the other is studied using non-Boltzmann Monte Carlo methods. We observe significant…
We study oblique incident light absorption in opaque media with rough surfaces. An analytical approach with modified boundary conditions taking into account the surface roughness in metallic or dielectric films has been discussed. Our…
Orientational and positional ordering properties of liquid crystal monolayers are examined by means of Fundamental-Measure Density Functional Theory. Particles forming the monolayer are modeled as hard parallelepipeds of square section of…
We analyze the effect of a rough surface on shear thinning and shear thickening fluids, modeled by power law stress tensors. The roughness is modeled by a small wavelength and small amplitude oscillation, parametrized by eps. We study the…
A nematic liquid crystal in contact with a grating surface possessing an alternating stripe pattern of locally homeotropic and planar anchoring is studied within the Frank--Oseen model. The combination of both chemical and geometrical…