Simulations of liquid crystal hydrodynamics in the isotropic and nematic phases

We present a lattice Boltzmann algorithm for the hydrodynamics of liquid crystals in the isotropic and nematic phases. The coupling between the tensor order parameter and the flow is treated consistently allowing investigation of a wide range of non-Newtonian flow behaviour. To illustrate the use of the method we present results for the effect of hydrodynamics on defect coalescence and demonstrate the occurrence of shear-banding and shear-thinning.