Numerical Determination of Thermal-Diffusivity Coefficients of Some Nematic Liquid Crystals in Situ

Abstract

In this study, a new experimental study has been implemented to deter- mine the thermal-diffusivity parameters of industrial nematic liquid crystals, 4-pentyl- 4 -cyanobiphenyl (5CB) and 4 -octyl-4-cyanobiphenyl (8CB), both numerically by using the finite difference method (FDM) for forward solutions and experimentally by measuring the temperature variation with time and position. The most important parts of this experimental study are the heating system and the liquid crystal cell, which were constructed in-house to determine the temperatures of the materials in situ. Four different positions for local measurements have been studied, and the opti- mum graph of this variation has been determined. The experimental and theoretical results of this study are consistent with previous measurements performed by means of a conventional thermal technique.