title: A dissipative particle dynamics description of liquid-crystalline phases. I. Methodology and applications.
abstract: Simulations of nematic and smectic mesophases based on a dissipative particle dynamics approach are discussed. Mesogenic units are built in the form of standard semirigid bead-spring chains. It is shown that nematic phases can be formed for chains containing at least eight beads, provided that the conservative soft-repulsive potential between nonconnected beads is sufficiently strong. Smectic phases are observed only by modifying the repulsive interaction between the main-chain and terminal beads. The simulations indicate that the smectic-nematic and smectic-isotropic phase transitions take place through the buckling of the smectic layering in the system.
authors.affiliation: Computational Biophysics, Debye Institute, Ornstein Laboratory, P.O. Box 80.000, 3508 TA Utrecht, The Netherlands. y.k.levin@phys.uu.nl
authors.forename: Yehudi K
authors.initials: YK
authors.lastname: Levine
authors.forename: Alexandre E
authors.initials: AE
authors.lastname: Gomes
authors.forename: Assis Farinha
authors.initials: AF
authors.lastname: Martins
authors.forename: Antonino
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Polimeno