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Liquid crystals have been extensively used in recent years for studies related to fluid mechanics and thermal engineering. They can be used to identify the hot spots in high power density electronic components such as processors in high performance computing.
Other applications include

The latter is a diagnosis technique known since the Greek civilization. Physicians would apply thin mud slurry on to areas of the bodies of patients. The pattern of drying and determines the abnormal distribution of heat release. For example, if there is damage in the nervous system, a temperature variation is observed around the injured nerve. Similarly, temperature patterns over the skin provide information related to arthritis and breast cancer. LCT uses encapsulated liquid crystal material and may be employed as temperature sensing layers on surfaces or microspheres suspended within liquids. Independently, liquid crystals may also be used to measure shear stress over surfaces exposed to a flowing fluid.