An analysis of a flow instability in nematic liquid crystals

Abstract

Pieranski and Guyon (1973) describe a shear-induced instability in a nematic liquid crystal when the anisotropic axis is initially normal to the plane of shear, and present a simple calculation which supports their experimental results. A more detailed theoretical analysis of the stability of this flow arrangement to certain time-dependent perturbations is given, and the theory predicts the onset of an instability at a critical shear rate not greatly different from that calculated by Pieranski and Guyon, and therefore in good agreement with their experimental observations.