The aim of this Faraday Partnership project is to study the effects of flow/director interactions on the switching characteristics of a post-aligned bistable nematic liquid crystal device. A novel flow boundary condition will be applied to the Ericksen-Leslie equations to investigate the back-flow and kick-back effects of flow/director interactions at the device substrate. This research will lead to more detailed understanding of director dynamics and avoidance of reverse switching in bistable nematic liquid crystal devices.

Project staff and support

Matthew Neilson (Postgraduate Faraday Associate, University of Strathclyde)
Nigel Mottram (Academic supervisor, University of Strathclyde)
Chris Newton (Industrial supervisor, HP Labs)
Melvin Brown (Technology Translator, Smith Institute)

This project is being carried out at the University of Strathclyde, in conjunction with HP Labs. It is supported by an EPSRC industrial CASE award, made available through the Faraday Partnership for Industrial Mathematics. Start date: October 2003; duration: 3 years.