| Although two different fields are covered, this thesis is mainly focused on some threshold behaviors in both liquid crystal field and fluid dynamic systems.; A method of rubbed polyimide is used to obtain pretilt. Sufficiently strong rubbing of a polyimide (SE-1211) results in a large polar pretilt of liquid crystal director with respect to the homeotropic orientation. There exists a threshold rubbing strength required to induce nonzero pretilt. For the homologous liquid crystal series alkyl-cyanobyphenyl, we found that the threshold rubbing strength is a monotonic function of the number of methylene units. A dual easy axis model is then used to explain the results.; Freedericksz transition measurements have been used to determine the quadratical and quartic coefficients associated with the molecules' tilt with respect to the layer normal in surface-induced smectic layers in the nematic phase above the smectic-A-nematic phase transition temperature. Both the quadratic and quartic coefficients are consistent with the scaling relationship as predicted in theory, and their ratio is approximately constant.; A Rayleigh-Taylor instability experiment is performed by using a magnetic field gradient to draw down a low density but highly paramagnetic fluid below a more dense fluid in a Hele-Shaw cell. When turning off the magnetic field, the RT instability occurs in situ and the growth of the most unstable wavevector is measured as a function of time. The wavelength of the RT instability along with the growth rate was measured as a function of capillary number (which is related to the density difference and interfacial tension between two fluids). A theory for the instability that permits different viscosities for two immiscible fluids was developed, and good agreement was found with the experimental results. The technique of magnetic levitation promises to broaden significantly the accessible parameter space of gravitational interfacial instability experiments.; A method is introduced to control initial conditions for a Rayleigh-Taylor instability, wherein a dense fluid sits metastably atop a less dense fluid, a configuration that can be stabilized using a magnetic field gradient when one fluid is highly paramagnetic. On switching off the magnetic field, the instability occurs as the dense fluid falls under gravity. By affixing appropriately shaped magnetically-permeable wires to the outside of the cell, arbitrarily-chosen and well-controlled initial perturbations are imposed on the interface. Using this technique, the perturbation amplitudes, growth rates, nonlinear growth coefficients, and terminal velocities are obtained to examine both the linear and nonlinear growth regimes. |
