Mathematical Modelling and Analysis of Industrially-Important Flows of Liquid Crystals: Spreading and Channel Filling

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Summary: This project is supported by an Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) Industrial CASE PhD studentship in conjunction with Merck Chemicals Ltd (Merck). The project will be supported by the Smith Institute for Industrial Mathematics and System Engineering.Project Background: Liquid crystal displays are now ubiquitous as displays in modern electronic devices, such as flat large-screen televisions, laptops, mobile phones, digital cameras and electronic toys. However, as the number and scale of display technology applications continue to grow the technical demands grow alongside them, and with 40 years of experience in the field of liquid crystals Merck are at the cutting edge of developing new and more efficient displays and the techniques for manufacturing them more cheaply and efficiently (sometimes called "process intensification"). Liquid crystal display manufacturing is a multi-billion pound international industry, and so even relatively small scientific and technological improvements can have substantial economic benefits both to the companies involved (in terms of increased profits) and to wider society (in terms of more widespread access to more affordable and more reliable devices).Strathclyde Context: The University of Strathclyde in Glasgow has a well-established track record in the theoretical analysis of liquid crystals, dating back to the pioneering work by Professor Frank Leslie FRS who, together with Professor Jerry Ericksen, formulated the famous and widely-studied Ericksen-Leslie equations for nematic liquid crystals. The Continuum Mechanics and Industrial Mathematics (CMIM) research group at Strathclyde (led by Professor Wilson) has particular expertise in studying the flow of complex fluids (and, in particular, liquid crystals) and a wide variety of thin-film flows.Project Aims: The aim of the proposed project is to use a combination of analytical and numerical techniques to bring new insight and understanding to fundamental scientific problems associated with the manufacturing of liquid crystal display technologies, specifically the spreading of a liquid crystal over a physically and/or chemically heterogeneous substrate, and the filling of a narrow channel with a liquid crystal.Supervision: The project will be supervised by Professors Stephen Wilson and Nigel Mottram in the Department of Mathematics and Statistics at the University of Strathclyde and Dr David Wilkes (Merck Germany) and Dr Rachel Tuffin (Merck UK). The student will be based at Strathclyde, with regular visits to Merck in Southampton and Germany.