Effect of hydrodynamic flow on kinetics of nematic-isotropic transition in liquid crystals

We investigate kinetics of nematic-isotropic transition by solving the hydrodynamic equations for the nematic 3 × 3 tensor order parameter Q_αβ and the fluid velocity in two space dimension (x-y plane). Numerical results indicate that nematic directors tend to align parallel to the x-y plane when hydrodynamic flow is incorporated. Late stage growth exponents, φ_c for the correlation length and φ_def for the number of topological defects, are not significantly altered by hydrodynamic flow. However, in contrast to the case without flow, the relation φdef = -2φ_c holds well, which may indicate the validity of dynamical scaling for the case with hydrodynamic flow.