Dynamics of the general $Q$-tensor model interacting with a rigid body

Abstract

In this article, the fluid-rigid body interaction problem of nematic liquid crystals described by the general Beris-Edwards $Q$-tensor model is studied. It is proved first that the total energy of this problem decreases in time. The associated mathematical problem is a quasilinear mixed-order system with moving boundary. After the transformation to a fixed domain, a monolithic approach based on the added mass operator and lifting arguments is employed to establish the maximal $L^p$-regularity of the linearized problem in an anisotropic ground space. This paves the way for the local strong well-posedness for large data and global strong well-posedness for small data of the interaction problem.

Accepted in SIAM Journal on Mathematical Analysis