Session L36 - General Poster Session II.
POSTER session, Wednesday morning, March 22
Exhibit Hall, MCC
The experimental study of the onset of electrohydrodynamic convection (EHC) through a dendritic growth is reported. If a magnetic Freedericksz-distorted liquid crystal of negative dielectric anisotropy is subjected to an electric field parallel to the magnetic field, EHC sets in through the nucleation of dendrites [1,2]. Measurements of tip speeds of the dendrites as a function of applied voltage at a fixed magnetic field are made. The goal is to explore the effect of the magnetic and electric fields on the dendritic growth. In addition, pattern dynamics is monitored once the final state of spatio-temporal chaos is reached by the system. [1] J. T. Gleeson, Nature 385, 511 (1997). [2] J. T. Gleeson, Physica A 239, 211 (1997). This research was supported by NSF grants DMR 9704579 and DMR 9619406.