Physics – Condensed Matter – Soft Condensed Matter
Scientific paper
2007-06-28
Physics
Condensed Matter
Soft Condensed Matter
17 pages, 6 figures, accepted for publication in J. non-Newt. Fluid Mech
Scientific paper
Active liquid crystals or active gels are soft materials which can be physically realised e.g. by preparing a solution of cytoskeletal filaments interacting with molecular motors. We study the hydrodynamics of an active liquid crystal in a slab-like geometry with various boundary conditions, by solving numerically its equations of motion via lattice Boltzmann simulations. In all cases we find that active liquid crystals can sustain spontaneous flow in steady state contrarily to their passive counterparts, and in agreement with recent theoretical predictions. We further find that conflicting anchoring conditions at the boundaries lead to spontaneous flow for any value of the 'activity' parameter, while with unfrustrated anchoring at all boundaries spontaneous flow only occurs when the activity exceeds a critical threshold. We finally discuss the dynamic pathway leading to steady state in a few selected cases.
Cates Michael E.
Marenduzzo Davide
Orlandini Enzo
Yeomans Julia M.
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