134 Measurement of Velocity Distribution of Nematic Liquid Crystals between Parallel Plates Under Electric Fields
Details
As a fundamental study of developing liquid crystalline actuators by using back-flow, velocity distributions of a nematic liquid crystal under electric fields were measured. We prepared for two kinds of liquid crystal cells whose twist angles were 0 and 180 deg, and the gap of them was 50μm. We selected 5CB liquid crystal as a nematic liquid crystal. The velocity distributions were visualized using polystyrene particles with 2.5μm in diameter. The movement of small particles was observed by using a polarizing microscope. When the twist angle was 0 deg, the velocity distribution was antisymmetric with respect to the center plane of the cell. When the twist angle was 180 deg, on the other hand, the velocity distribution showed positive values at every point, and the maximum value was obtained at the center position of the cell. As a result, it is found that the twist angle has large effect on the distribution of the velocity and that the maximum absolute value for the twist angle of 180 deg is larger than that for the twist angle of 0 deg.
