Monodomain dynamics for rigid rod and platelet suspensions in strongly coupled coplanar linear flow and magnetic fields

xtensional flows and magnetic fields induce similar steady alignment responses when applied to iquid crystals LCs , liquid crystal polymers LCPs and nematic rigid rod or platelet uspensions. This observation is explained for LCs by a classical analogy, expressed as a ymmetry, between hydrodynamic and magnetic fields in the Leslie-Ericksen theory de Gennes nd Prost, The Physics of Liquid Crystals Oxford University Press, New York, 1993 ; handrasekhar, Liquid Crystals Cambridge University Press, London, 1992 . Our purpose here is o extend this analogy: first, to LCPs and nematic suspensions where an excluded volume potential ouples either to a linear flow Hess, Z. Naturforsch. A 31a, 1034–1037 1976 ; Doi and Edwards, he Theory of Polymer Dynamics Clarendon, Oxford, 1986 or to a magnetic field Bhandar and iest, J. Colloid Interface Sci. 257, 371–382 2003 ; and second, to the strong coupling of xcluded volume interactions, planar linear flows, and a coplanar magnetic field. The general ymmetries reveal parameter redundancies in the Doi-Hess kinetic theory, leading to a reduced odel with significant computational savings. That is, a rotational planar linear LCP or nematic uspension flow under an imposed coplanar magnetic field is reducible to a simple shear flow oupled with a transversely imposed magnetic field and negative anisotropy through an orthogonal ransformation; whereas a magnetic field coupled linear, irrotational flow corresponds to a ri-directional elongation. We illustrate these results with a second-moment tensor model to predict ow a variable strength, coplanar magnetic field may be used to alter or control flow-induced esponses of LCPs or nematic suspensions. The illustrations are for sheared dynamic attractors