Forces and Variational Compatibility for Equilibrium Liquid Crystal Director Models with Coupled Electric Fields

TL;DR

This paper develops a variational framework for equilibrium liquid crystal models with electric fields, deriving force and stress expressions, and exploring effects of electric, magnetic, and gravitational fields on director configurations.

Contribution

It introduces a variational compatibility approach for liquid crystal models with coupled electric fields, including flexoelectric effects and boundary anchoring, extending existing theories.

Findings

Derived force and couple densities for liquid crystals under electric fields.

Established equilibrium conditions satisfying force and torque balance.

Connected variational models to Noether's theorem and continuum mechanics literature.

Abstract

Expressions are obtained for force and couple densities and stress tensors in macroscopic models for nematic liquid crystals subjected to electric fields. The coupling between the liquid crystal orientational properties and the electric field is taken into account via a free energy of Oseen-Frank type expressed as an integral functional of the director field and the electric potential field. The variational model here also allows for a gravitational field and a magnetic field, and the differences among these three common types of force fields (gravitational, magnetic, and electric) are discussed. Also included in the free energy is a surface anchoring potential, and its effect on boundary traction and couple stress is explored. The electric field is assumed to arise from electrodes held at constant potential. Flexoelectric effects are included, and as a consequence, the material is no longer a linear dielectric medium. It is shown that the equilibrium solutions of the Euler-Lagrange equations satisfy appropriate expressions of force balance and torque balance, obtained from a virtual-work principle, and a connection is made between this and ideas related to Noether's Theorem. The development here builds from theories of Ericksen related to the notion of "variational compatibility," and this connection is made. Comparisons are also made to the extensive literature in physics and continuum mechanics on electromagnetic field/matter interaction.