Shear instabilities of freely standing thermotropic smectic-A films

In this Letter we discuss theoretically the instabilities of thermotropic freely standing smectic-A films under shear flow\cite{re:wu}. We show that, in Couette geometry, the centrifugal force pushes the liquid crystal toward the outer boundary and induces smectic layer dilation close to the outer boundary. Under strong shear, this effect induces a layer buckling instability. The critical shear rate is proportional to $1/\sqrt{d}$, where $d$ is the thickness of the film.Comment: 12 pages, 2 figure

Observations of the collapse of dilute lyotropic lamellar phases under sheer flow

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Observations of the collapse of dilute lyotropic lamellar phases under sheer flow

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Observations of the collapse of dilute lyotropic lamellar phases under sheer flow

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Observation of a finite-time singularity in needle propagation in Hele-Shaw cells

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Dynamic light scattering from lyotropic lamellar phases subjected to a flow field

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Observation of a finite-time singularity in needle propagation in Hele-Shaw cells

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Dynamic light scattering from lyotropic lamellar phases subjected to a flow field

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Dynamic light scattering from lyotropic lamellar phases subjected to a flow field

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Shear-induced first-order sponge-to-lamellar transition in a lyotropic surfactant system

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