https://doi.org/10.1140/epjp/s13360-021-02250-w
Regular Article
Acoustic transition for a micromorphic model of nematic liquid crystals
DIMA, Università, via Dodecaneso 35, 16146, Genova, Italy
Received:
23
August
2021
Accepted:
2
December
2021
Published online:
13
December
2021
A micromorphic approach to the density–orientation coupling in nematic liquid crystals is exploited to discuss the acoustic transition of its orientational structure. The constitutive model is based on the representation of mass density by the microdensity, whose effectiveness and coherence with classical continuum models were discussed in a previous work. The usual micropolar model is here extended to account for a microstretch contribution which is essential to describe the dynamics of compressible materials. The specific investigation pertains a boundary value problem for a nematic layer with homeotropic structure subject to an incident acoustic wave. We deduce a threshold value of the displacement amplitude on a boundary layer. By a numerical evaluation, we compare the threshold wave velocity with experimental data.
© The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Società Italiana di Fisica and Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature 2021
