Undergraduate Honors Theses
Thesis Defended
Spring 2016
Document Type
Thesis
Type of Thesis
Departmental Honors
Department
Physics
First Advisor
Joseph Maclennan
Second Advisor
John Cumalat
Third Advisor
Mark Hoefer
Abstract
Thin, freely-suspended smectic liquid crystal films, due to their layered structure, provide an ideal system with which to study two dimensional (2D) hydrodynamics. We have performed some of the first experimental visualizations of actively-driven 2D flow fields, and compared these flow fields to predictions made by theoretical models. First, an experiment testing the flow field generated by a disk-shaped inclusion moving laterally in a film is described. Then an experiment testing the flow field generated by a thin nozzle injecting fluid at a quick rate into a large reservoir is detailed. Results are consistent with the idea that 2D fluids exhibit strong coupling with surrounding bulk fluid.
Recommended Citation
Ferguson, Kyle R., "Active 2D Microrheological Studies in Freely-Suspended Smectic Liquid Crystal Films" (2016). Undergraduate Honors Theses. 1087.
https://scholar.colorado.edu/honr_theses/1087