TUESDAY, April 13, 2004
Time: 3:00 - 4:00 PM
Constant Hall Room 1008

Dr. Ruhai Zhou
Department of Mathematics
University of North Carolina
Chapel Hill, NC

The basic concepts of flowing nematic polymers will be introduced, along with the mathematical and computational issues that we address. The technological motivation is nano-composite materials, for which nematic polymers are an important model system. We present the multiscale model equations for both the probability distribution function of molecule orientation and its second moment average. Then we survey a few recent results: 1. We show how the orientational degeneracy in the equilibrium breaks in weak shear flow, using asymptotic analysis and numerical simulations. 2. We give the phase diagram of bulk attractors versus shear rate and molecular concentration, using numerical bifurcation tools. 3. We explore structure formation of nematic polymers between two moving plates using both asymptotic analysis and multiscale numerical methods.