Analytical characterization of flow velocity in liquid crystal around a particle using linear partial differential equations, highlighting anisotropic behavior.
In this paper, we consider the flow of a nematic liquid crystal in the domain exterior to a small spherical particle. We work within the framework of the x1D64C -tensor model, taking into account the orientational elasticity of the medium. Under a suitable regime of physical parameters, the governing equations can be reduced to a system of linear partial differential equations. Our focus is on precise far-field asymptotics of the flow velocity with an emphasis on its anisotropic behaviour. We are able to analytically characterize the flow pattern and compare it with that of the classical isotropic Stokes flow. The expression for velocity away from the particle can be computed numerically or symbolically.
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Golovaty et al. (2025) studied this question.
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