Contact Details
| Room No. | L934 |
|---|---|
| Telephone | +44 (0)141 548 3648 |
| Fax | +44 (0)141 548 3345 |
| andre.sonnet@strath.ac.uk |
Research Interests
Biaxial Nematic Liquid Crystals
- Constitutive Equations for Biaxial Nematics
- Landau Theory with two Order Tensors
- Mean Field Theories
- Defect Core Structure
Computational Fluid Dynamics for Nematic Liquid Crystals
- Fast Flow-Orientation Solver for Q-Tensor Model
- Shear Flow Instabilities
Recent Publications
- Steric effects in dispersion forces interactions
- Sonnet AM and Virga EG
Physical Review E, 2008, 77 - Landau theory for biaxial nematic liquid crystals with two order parameter tensors
- De Matteis G, Sonnet AM and Virga EG
Continuum Mechanics and Thermodynamics, 2008, 20, 347-374. - Computational Fluid Dynamics for Nematic Liquid Crystals
- A M Sonnet and A Ramage
University of Strathclyde Mathematics Research Report, 2007, #28 - Universal mean-field phase diagram for biaxial nematics obtained from a minimax principle
- Bisi F, Virga EG, Gartland EC, DeMatteis G, Sonnet AM and Durand GE
Phys. Rev. E, 2006, 73 - Viscous forces on nematic defects
- Sonnet AM
Continuum Mech. Therm., 2005, 17, 287-295.
Vacancies & Studentships
Computational Fluid Dynamics of Liquid Crystals
Reference No.: AR/AMS1
Supervisors:
Date Advertised: 6th February 2007
Please contact Dr Alison Ramage for further information.
Liquid crystals are fluids that show local orientational order.
The interplay between orientation and flow in these substances is very intricate and can lead to interesting macroscopic phenomena, many of which are not yet fully understood.
A particular example is the pattern formation that can occur in polymeric liquid crystals under flow.
This is an industrially important effect that influences, eg, the stability of items produced by moulding.
Flow is also important in certain types of liquid crystal displays.
The project will involve both theoretical modelling and development and implementation of numerical methods for the solution of the generalised Stokes and Navier-Stokes equations that govern the flow.
This project is suitable for students who have taken both the Numerical Analysis and Fluid Mechanics classes.
No previous aquaintance with Liquid Crystals is assumed.
Dynamics of Biaxial Liquid Crystals
Reference No.: AMS1
Supervisor: Dr Andre Sonnet
Date Advertised: 13th November 2008
Please contact Dr Oleg Davydov for further information.
The molecules of a liquid crystal tend to align with one another. The local orientation of the molecular alignment determines the optical properties of the liquid crystal, which makes it suitable for display applications. Computing the dynamics of the orientation is therefore a key stage in the modelling of liquid crystal devices.
Mathematically, the orientation is governed by partial differential equations that describe how the liquid crystal behaves in the presence of deformations, external fields, and boundary conditions. This project focuses on biaxial nematic liquid crystals. These are a novel type of material that is expected to play an important role in future applications.
The project involves theoretical modelling of the liquid crystal and derivation of the relevant dynamical equations. The solution of these equations for different scenarios can involve, depending on the actual problem, both analytical and numerical techniques. A further task will be the visualisation of results using 3D-graphics.
This project is suitable for students who have taken the Mechanics classes and ideally also some of the Numerical Analysis classes. No previous acquaintance with Liquid Crystals is required.