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Periodical shear instability of nematics : symmetry considerations
A.-J. Koch, F. Rothen, J. Sadik, O. Schöri
To cite this version:
A.-J. Koch, F. Rothen, J. Sadik, O. Schöri. Periodical shear instability of nematics : symmetry considerations. Journal de Physique, 1985, 46 (5), pp.699-707. �10.1051/jphys:01985004605069900�.
�jpa-00210011�
Institut de Physique Expérimentale, Université de Lausanne, 1015 Lausanne-Dorigny, Switzerland and O. Schöri
Institut de Physique Nucléaire, Université de Lausanne, 1015 Lausanne-Dorigny, Switzerland
(Recu le 10 août 1984, révisé le 17 décembre, accepté le 1 S janvier 1985 )
Résumé. 2014 Nous montrons qu’à partir de considérations de symétrie, il est possible de prévoir la forme générale
des courbes de seuil séparant les différents régimes d’écoulement (uniforme, rouleaux, carrés) d’un nématique homéotrope cisaillé périodiquement. Le calcul est effectué dans le cas où la transition se ramène à une brisure de
symétrie caractérisée par l’apparition de rouleaux de direction 03C8. Nous déterminons également la variation de 03C8
au seuil lorsque l’on modifie le cisaillement
Abstract. 2014 We show that from symmetry considerations it is possible to predict the general shape of the threshold
curves fixing the boundaries between the different flow regimes (uniform, roll or square) occurring in a homeotropic
nematic submitted to a periodical shear. Calculations have been made for the case in which the transition is reduced to a break of symmetry characterized by the appearance of a roll set in the direction 03C8. The variation of 03C8 at threshold when the shear is modified has also been obtained
1. Introduction
The present paper is the
development
of earlier expe- rimental and theoretical works on a certainhydro- dynamical instability
of nematics under shear[1-7].
Very general
symmetry considerations about the system will be used in order to find relations between the parameterscharacterizing
the various flowregimes
at threshold.
The purpose of our work is to show that the funda- mental
symmetries
of the motionequations
are richenough
to lead to not trivialscaling
laws. Some of ourresults have
already
been confirmedby experi-
ments
[1-5]
or are consistent withprevious
theoretical calculations made with classical methods [6, 7].1.1 NEMATIC LIQUID CRYSTALS. - As we do not use
detailed
nematodynamics,
we shallonly
recall threepoints [8] :
1)
The nematics are formedby elongated
moleculeswhich have a mean orientation direction described
by
a director n (n and - n are
equivalent).
This introducesa
large anisotropy
in the nematics, which are to firstorder
approximation,
characterizedby
fiveindepen-
dent
viscosity
coefficients(Xi (i
= 1, ...,5).
2)
Analignment elasticity
exists which is describedby
threeelasticity
constantsK1, K2, K3.
3)
In addition to the force andincompressibility equations,
acomplete description
of nematics needs atorque
equation
and the condition ofunitarity
of n1. 2 EXPERIMENTAL FACTS. - We consider a nematic
homeotropically
retained between twoparallel glass plates, separated by
a distance d. Aperiodic
movementis
applied
to one of them(Fig.
1). In theOxyz
frame,the
displacement
of theplate
reads :Experimental
data are available for a few values of x., Xn, Ym, Yn and m, n.They
have thefollowing
com-mon
properties.
When the shear
amplitudes
are small, theregime
is« uniform » : in the nematic
sample,
the average orien- tation of molecules,given by
the director n, is inde-pendent
of theposition.
If we increase the shearamplitude,
the flow becomes unstable : above a certainthreshold, convective rolls appear in the
liquid
cell;Article published online by EDP Sciences and available at http://dx.doi.org/10.1051/jphys:01985004605069900
700
Fig. 1. - Experimental set up. A nematic sample is sand- wiched between two rectangular plates. The thickness of the cell is d. One imposes a displacement of the form x(t) = x. cos (mwt) + x" cos (nwt) and y(t) = y. sin (mwt) +
y. sin (scot) on the upper plate. The lower plate is fixed.
their orientation V is defined in
figure
3. If we continueto increase the
amplitudes,
this rollregime gives
way,beyond
a second threshold, to a « square flow » hereeverything
is as if two roll series weresuperposed
almost at
right angle [1-4] (Fig.
2). Our purpose is touse symmetry considerations in order to deduce the
shape
of the threshold curves for a vastfamily
ofshears.
2. The symmetry method.
2.1 THE MAIN ASSUMPTIONS. - This work uses the
following assumptions
based onexperimental
data.Al) We assume that the shear rate in the bulk of the
sample
is characterizedby
the ratiosXi/d, yield (i
= m,n).
This is the case if the border effects due to the stronghomeotropic anchoring
arenegligible
andif the
penetration depth
of a shear wave is muchlarger
than the
sample
thickness.A2)
At threshold the shear ratesXi/d, yid(i
= m,n)
and the inverse P of the Ericksen number
(see § 2. 2)
are
supposed
to be small. This enables us to retainonly
the first terms in aTaylor expansion
inxdd, yJd and
P. Theexperiments [1-5]
show that thishypo-
thesis has a
large
domain ofvalidity.
A3)
We are interestedby
a thresholdequation relating
the various parameterscharacterizing
anexperiment,
i.e. Xi’ yi(i
= m,n),
OJ and V(1).
Aswe do not seek numerical values but rather
scaling
laws, theviscosity
andelasticity
will appearonly
toensure the
right
dimension and will be labelledby
aand K
(a
and K can be any combination ofrespectively
the five viscosities and the three elasticities,
having
thecorresponding dimension).
We shall not try to find any information on the roll geometry, so we do not intro- duce a parameter related to this property.(1) We assume that P can be fixed arbitrarily by some experimental device. This is still an assumption because no
such experiment has yet been performed.
Fig. 2. - For a given sample at fixed temperature elliptically
sheared at frequency (u/2 n, and for xn = y. = 0, the threshold curves are relations between the shear amplitudes
Xm and y.. A gives the border between uniform and roll
regimes. Curve B delimits the boundary between roll and square regimes.
Fig. 3. - The direction of the roll series appearing at the instability threshold is characterized by the unit vector b. b
is defined as the normal to the roll axis direction. P is the
angle between b and an axis of the shear figure, arbitrarily
chosen to be the x-axis.
A4)
At threshold, the bifurcation, characterized for instanceby
the occurrence of a roll lattice, issupposed
to be direct; thus we can linearize the equa- tions with respect to infinitesimal fluctuations.It must be
emphasized
that theseassumptions
arenecessary to determine the characteristic parameters of the
problem (Al, A3)
and their relative orders ofmagnitude
(A2,A4).
2.2 INTRODUCTION TO THE THRESHOLD DETERMINA- TION. - To get threshold curves, the usual
procedure
described below
(points
I toIV)
is inconvenient : it is verylong, requires
a lot ofsimplifications
and leadsto poor numerical results
[6, 7].
We shall use a similarway but we
disregard
all numerical information andwe avoid
solving
thenematodynamic equations.
Let usfundamental
frequency
w. This isjustified by
thefact that the excitation has at least the
frequency
w.Following
this, we can writewhere 6a can be
bvx, bvy, 6v_,, bnx, 6ny, ðnz
or6p;
b is anunitary
vector in theplane
(xy), as defined infigure
3.At this stage, the usual method consists in the
following operations :
I) The introduction of v = v. + bv, n = n’ + bn,
p = p- +
6p
in thenematodynamic equations.
II)
The linearization with respect to the ð’s.III) The choice of a
degree
ofprecision;
the intro-duction of a Fourier
development satisfying
the borderconditions with the desired accuracy and
neglecting
the
remaining
harmonics. Thisprocedure
uses thestandard method for this type of
problems,
i.e. iden- tifications of thespatial
harmonics and timeaveraging
over one
period
aftermultiplication by
a suitablefactor.
IV)
Therequirement
that the system obtained hasa
non-vanishing
solution. Let us notice that this linear system has its second memberidentically equal
to zero.This is obvious for the torque,
incompressibility
andunitarity equations.
For the forceequations,
thesecond member is the time derivative of the
velocity;
as, at
point
III, it is necessary to take its time averageover one
period,
it is zero.To get the
scaling
laws at threshold, we shallreplace
the
procedure
I to IVby
thefollowing.
1)
We write a linearhomogeneous
system of twoequations
for two unknowns6a";
we choosebvkrs
and the
explicit
form ofM(S)
follow atpoint
2. Wehave to take a system of two
equations
for two un-knowns : this is related to the fact that, as we shall see
in the
following,
thesymmetries
act in aplane. 6v/md
and
fI(prol.
d) are the non-dimensional combinationoccurring naturally
in the forceequations.
Theindexes (k, r, s) do not
play
any role in the computa- tion.2)
We determine the essential parameters of theproblem. According
to AI-A3, the dimensionlessexpressions
that one can form to characterize the system are thefollowing :
a)
The reducedamplitudes xi/d, Yid
(i = m,n)
ofthe shear stress.
b)
A dimensionless number P built with m, thefrequency appearing
in(2) (see [6] (the
inverse of P is also known as the Ericksennumber)) :
c)
Theangle
T between the direction of the vector b and the x-axis(Fig. 3).
So, the set of dimensionless parameters characteris- tic of the
instability
will be3)
Wedevelop M(S)
in aTaylor expansion
aroundxi/d
=ydd
= P = 0 and in a Fourierexpansion
above ’P. This is allowed
by hypothesis
A2 andby
the
spatial periodicity
of the rolls. So we get :702
The upper limits in the sums above a,
P,
y,ð, Jl
and kmust be chosen from case to case
according
to thedesired amount of information. We show in the next section that it is
possible
tosimplify
M(S)by
use ofthe
symmetries
of the system.2. 3 THE SYMMETRIES. - When no shear is
applied,
the system is invariant under any rotation or reflec- tion in the
(xy)-plane.
What are thesymmetries
whenthe nematic is submitted to a
periodical
shear ?We have to find out among the
changes
of frame allow- edby
thesymmetries
of thenematodynamic
equa- tions (i.e. rotations, inversions, change of m’ssign
and their
combinations)
the one whichgives equiva-
lent border conditions, i.e.
equivalent
shear motion.There are two ways to
satisfy
thisrequirement.
2 . 3 .1 The geometrical symmetries in the
(xy)-plane (this
means theplane
rotations andinversions).
We have to retain
only
thosesatisfying :
with
In this
expression,
r is a timephase
and 8 takes the values ± 1according
to whetherR((p, e)
includes an inversionor not;
x;, y; (i
= m,n),
cp and r have to be determinedby solving
this system.2.3.2 The sign
change of co.
- Instead ofdeveloping
the shear for thetrigonometric
functions withpositive frequency
to, one may do so withnegative frequency -
co. This can be written as :The left side of this relation has been
expanded
overpositive
and theright
part overnegative frequencies. By
use of
trigonometric
functionproperties,
thesign
of w has been put in front of theright
member.The most
general
symmetry will be a combination of bothpreceding
cases. This means :il takes the value ± 1,
according
to the selectedsign
of thefrequency.
Since(6)
has to be valid for any time t,the identification of the coefficients in front of cos
(kmt)
and sin(kmt) (k
= m,n)
leads to a system forx,., xm Y’, Y’
i and cp whose solutionsgive
allpossible symmetries
for the considered shear. P’ isequal
to tIP(since
P -
l/ro)
and ’P’ is deduced from the transformation of the vector b(see Fig. 3)
under the rotationR(cp, s q) :
Y’ =
B q(T
+’P).
In thefollowing,
we shall write S’ for the transformed parametersAfter a transformation like
(6),
the system(3)
becomesComparing (3)
and(7),
one findsA careful look at the
symmetries existing
under the shear stress(1)
shows that, for the mostgeneral
choice ofApplying
thesesymmetries
toequations (8,
5)one gets the reduced form of the coefficients Muv
(their
detailed form and anexample
of calculation isgiven
inAppendix).
The threshold is obtainedby putting
detM S
= 0, in order to get anon-vanishing
solution of the linear
homogeneous
system(3).
3. Thresholds for some
special
shears.Since the
complete
threshold is rather cumbersome,we shall consider
particular
cases and show that additionalsymmetries
lead to verysimple expressions.
3. I ELLIPTICAL SHEAR. - In order to get an
elliptic
shear motion, we put xn = y,, = 0 and m = 1 :
Resolution of
equation (6)
in this casegives
the follow-ing supplementary
symmetry :It is worth
emphasizing
that the coefficientsA ",k
and
B;:ðll
aredependent
on the rollwavelength.
So a result obtained for a
particular
case cannot begeneralized
to differentgeometries
withoutchecking
that no drastic
wavelength
variation occurs. A recentexperiment [5]
has shown that acomplete change
ofamplitude
values(for example going
from anellipse
to an
eight
(seebelow)) gives
rise to rolls of verydifferent
shape,
so the coefficientsappearing
in MUV(S) mayconsiderably change.
Forelliptical
shear,this remark does not introduce an
important
restric-tion since the
wavelength
variation is, at this order ofcomputation, negligible
when theellipticity
varies[3].
Thus we are allowed to use the additional sym- metryoccurring when x,
= y 1 in order to reduceM(S) ; solving (6)
for thisspecial
case, we get :If, as was done in
[7],
we decide that the result isgood enough
when we cut all terms in nO with n > 2,we get the threshold
published
in that reference. Letus recall that this lead also to the fact that P vs.
XI/YI
is a step curve with ajump
ofn/2 when x i
= YI.JOURNAL DE PHYSIQUE - T. 46, mo 5, MAI 1985
Thus the
symmetries
enable us to get thecomplete
form of the threshold
(in [7]
the symmetry methodwas used to get the
higher
order but the lower one was obtainedby
a classicalcomputation).
It alsoallows us to say that, as
long
as it remainspossible
704
to describe the second transition
(i.e.
from rolls tosquares) by
the appearance of a new roll set, the second thresholdequation
will fulfil the same res-trictions
imposed by
thesymmetries
and so will havethe same form. It is worth
noting
that even a semi-quantitative
determination of this second thresholdby
usual methods would involve cumbersome cal- culations.3.2 EIGHT-SHAPED SHEARS. - Another
interesting
case is obtained
by putting
xn = ym = 0(or
x. = yn =0)
inequation (1).
This leads to thefollowing plate
motion(Fig. 4)
(m
odd, neven).
In the
following,
we shalldesign
this type offigure by
«eight-shaped
shear ».Experiments
have shownthat the
wavelength
is not very sensitive to the varia- tion of shearamplitudes [5],
so we can use the limitcases xm = 0
and yn
= 0 to get more restriction onM" ; x. = 0
(y.
=0)
introduced in(6) produces
anew symmetry :
Fig. 4. - Examples of eight-shaped shear motions. We give
here the figures one obtains for (m, n) = (1, 2) and (m, n) = (1, 4).
This leads to the
following
reduced matrixM(S)
Let us notice that in the case of an
eight-shaped
shear, P isproportional
to xm yn ;by calculating
det
M(S)
= 0, we get(Fig. 5)
(For
the sake ofsimplicity
we have included theT-dependence
in the coefficients a’ andb’.)
For a
given frequency,
theinstability begins
atthe lowest shear
satisfying (9).
1’his leads to theminimization of
x’y’ld’
with respect to T when thisangle
is nolonger imposed by
some externaldevice but left free.
Doing
this, we obtain animplicit equation
for P,independent
of the shearamplitude
and of the
frequency.
Theexperiment [5]
shows thatP remains constant over a
large
domain of shearamplitude
and that our thresholdequation
wellreproduces
the observed data. Theshape
of thethreshold curve in the case of
« eight
shear » ispictured
infigure
5.Fig. 5. - Threshold curve under eight-shaped shear motion.
A delimits the uniform and the roll regimes. B is the roll-
square threshold.
sm
and sn
can take the values ± 1; xmand xn
arechosen so as to be of the same
sign.
The resolution of
equation (6)
with these shearamplitudes
leads to thefollowing
additional sym- metries :Fig. 6. - Flower-shaped shears. At given frequency co/2 n
and for fixed (m, n), the threshold curve (11) depends on the
ratio r = (sn xn)/(sm xm). We give here some shear figures
one gets for m = 1 and n = 4 by varying r.
It is
interesting
to observe that when theproduct
Sm Sn
changes
itssign,
the symmetry of the shearfigure changes.
In fact, afigure with Sm Sn
= + 1has a rotation axis of order
(m - n) ;
if sm sn = - 1, the order of rotation axis is(m + n). Figure
6 illustrates thischange
of symmetry for agradual
variation of the ratio r =(Sn xn)/(sm xm).
If we assume
again
that, at this order of calculation,the roll
wavelength
isnearly
constant, we can usethe limit case of the
ellipse
tosimplify
the matrixM(S).
Let us consider the case xn = 0; this leads to a certain threshold which has to be theelliptical
one for a motion
frequency
of w’ = mm.Applying
the same argument for xm = 0, we
finally
getBefore
writing
this we havereplaced
the sums above kby
the introduction of aT-dependence
in the coeffi-cients. One can observe that the threshold is invariant under the whole symmetry group
previously
defined,and in
particular
under the rotations of order (m ±n).
Anew derivation with respect to IF will lead to an
implicit equation
for P,independent
of themagnitude
of the shears and of the
frequencies.
The
shape
of the threshold surface(11)
inphase
space
OXm
P isgiven
infigure
7. Thedeep valley
shown is due to the annulation of the term
(sm mx;
+ snnx;), leading
to a sixth order threshold in x;, y;. This can beinterpreted
as astability
increaseof the sheared nematic
liquid
when theamplitudes
are
approximately
relatedby xm
=(n/m) xn.
In thiscase, the threshold, up to the sixth order, reads
706
Fig. 7. - Shape of threshold curve under flower-shaped
shear.
P is of third order
in xi (i
= n4 n), as in case ofeight- shaped
shear. Shear motions whichgive
way to such thresholds (P -xt)
seem to be relatedby
somecommon characteristic. Let us define the area of a
figure
asbeing positive
if the borders are followed clockwise andnegative
otherwise(see Fig. 8). Using
this definition,
figures
withx. - (n/m) x’
have azero area since the total area of the «
petals
» isalmost
equal
to the centre area, but with anopposite sign.
4. Conclusions.
In this paper we have shown that symmetry conside- rations lead to some
interesting predictions
about theinstability
thresholdappearing
inperiodically
shearednematics : we have studied both the
shape
of thethreshold curve and the orientation of the
instability
induced structure. In all the considered cases the structure orientation at threshold is
independent
of the variation of the shear
figure
except for somejumps.
Moreover, we do not need any detailed infor- mation on theregime
which becomes unstable.In the case of a transition from uniform to roll
regime
followed
by
a transition from roll to square flow,this remark shows that both threshold curves have
Fig. 8. - The « petals » of the shear figure are followed clockwise, so their area is positive; the centre of the figure
is followed counterclockwise and thus is negative. The total
area; when
x’ - (n/m) x;,
is almost zero (here (m, n) = (1, 4)).the same
shape (only
the numerical constants can bedifferent).
We want to
emphasize
that the method can beapplied
to otherproblems.
It may beparticularly
useful to get
qualitative
ideas of threshold curves in alot of involved instabilities. The
only required
condi-tion is that there is
enough
information to determine theright
set of parametersentering
theproblem,
their order of
magnitude
and the symmetry groupacting
in each case.Finally
we propose this methodas a useful tool to
qualitatively
solve a wide range of symmetrybreaking problems.
Acknowledgments.
We are
grateful
to F. Reust for hishelp
and hisassistance in
developing
the symmetry considerations.We thank E. Dubois-Violette, E. Guazzelli, E.
Guyon,
P. Pieranski for fruitful discussions and for their
hospitality
in Paris andOrsay.
Weacknowledge
thereferees for their useful comments.
During
the matu-ration of this paper, we have had
stimulating
talkswith A.
Bay
and M. Jorand. We are indebted to S. Herranz, N. Leiser for technical assistance and to S. Moch for a carefulreading
of themanuscript
Let us notice that we have retained
only
terms up to third order in xi, yi(i
= m,n).
P is at least of second order in x;, yi as it can be verifiedby inspection
ofM(S).
We shall show, with anexample,
how it ispossible
to obtainthis reduced form; for instance, a term like
must vanish. Let us first evaluate this term after a rotation of n, with the
help
of S’(see
the table in §2. 3) :
We shall now evaluate the left member of
equation (8) by using
the table ofsymmetries given
in § 2. 3 :So
equation (8) implies M(S’)
=M(S) ;
this leads toReferences
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