ON THE EXISTENCE OF INFINITELY MANY LIMIT POINTS ON THE SOLUTION BRANCH OF PLANAR SHEAR-FLOW OF NEMATIC LIQUID-CRYSTALS

We use the Ericksen-Leslie equations to investigate the solution branc h of simple planar shear flow between moving parallel plates for non-n ow-orienting nematic liquid crystals. We show the existence of infinit ely many limit points on the solution branch of simple planar shear fl ow. Hence the tumbling phenomena observed in experiments can be explai ned as the exchange of stability of the planar configuration by anothe r planar configuration with a more distorted director field. (C) 1997 Academic Press.