Numerical and Experimental Studies of Liquid Crystalline Flow Induced by Annihilation of Paired Defects

Numerical and experimental studies of liquid crystalline flow induced by the annihilation of paired defects have been achieved by using the Doi theory coupled with the Marrucci-Greco potential. The molecular orientation distribution function is approximated by a series of spherical harmonic functions, to reduce the computational task. It is empirically known that the defects with different types of molecular orientation configuration attract each other, and finally annihilate. During this annihilation process, the liquid crystalline flow will be induced through the rotation of the molecular orientation direction. It is found from the numerical results that vortex-like liquid crystalline flow is induced around the defects come closer. The numerical predictions are induced liquid crystalline flow is confirmed by the experiment.