Abstract
Active control of a rivulet of a nematic liquid crystal is achieved by local modification of the effective viscosity with an applied electric field. Specifically, using the nematic 5CB, control of the free surface of the rivulet is achieved through manipulation of the effective viscosity induced by the competition of moments due to viscous shear stress alignment and electric field alignment. The experimentally observed dependencies of the rivulet height on the volume flux and the strength of the applied electric field are successfully captured by a theoretical model based on the Ericksen-Leslie equations.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Article number | 064002 |
| Journal | Physical Review Fluids |
| Volume | 9 |
| Issue number | 6 |
| Early online date | 24 Jun 2024 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - 24 Jun 2024 |
Data Availability Statement
All data supporting this work are provided at [39].Funding
The authors would like to acknowledge the financial support of the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) via EPSRC Research Grants No. EP/T012986/1 and No. EP/T012501/2. We also wish to thank Russell Metcalfe (Nottingham Trent University) for his technical support with the experiments, and Professor Martin Bencsik (also Nottingham Trent University) for assistance with the image processing used to create Fig. 4.