Rheology of cholesteric blue phases

Details Rheology of cholesteric blue phases Rheology of cholesteric blue phases

2006-05-11

arxiv.org/abs/cond-mat/0605296v1

Phys. Rev. Lett. 95, 097801 (2005)

Physics

Condensed Matter

Soft Condensed Matter

4 pages, 4 figures

Scientific paper

10.1103/PhysRevLett.95.097801

Blue phases of cholesteric liquid crystals offer a spectacular example of naturally occurring disclination line networks. Here we numerically solve the hydrodynamic equations of motion to investigate the response of three types of blue phases to an imposed Poiseuille flow. We show that shear forces bend and twist and can unzip the disclination lines. Under gentle forcing the network opposes the flow and the apparent viscosity is significantly higher than that of an isotropic liquid. With increased forcing we find strong shear thinning corresponding to the disruption of the defect network. As the viscosity starts to drop, the imposed flow sets the network into motion. Disclinations break-up and re-form with their neighbours in the flow direction. This gives rise to oscillations in the time-dependent measurement of the average stress.

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