Non-Newtonian rheology in twist-bend nematic liquid crystals

Abstract

In this work we present a simple qualitative model to describe shear rheological behavior of the twist-bend nematic liquid crystals. We find that at relatively low shear rate the effective viscosity decreases with the shear rate manifesting so-called shear-thinning phenomenon. At intermediate shear rate the stress is almost independent of the shear rate (a sort of plateau), and at large shear rate Newtonian rheology takes place. Within our theory we estimate the critical values of the shear rate in terms of coarse grained shear viscosity coefficients of the effective smectics equivalent to the twist-bend phase at large scales. The results of our work are in the agreement with recent experimental studies.