Title
A structure-preserving FEM for the uniaxially constrained $\mathbf{Q}$-tensor model of nematic liquid crystals
Abstract
We consider the one-constant Landau-de Gennes model for nematic liquid crystals. The order parameter is a traceless tensor field Q, which is constrained to be uniaxial: Q = s(n circle times n - d(-1)I) where n is a director field, s is an element of R is the degree of orientation, and d >= 2 is the dimension. Building on similarities with the one-constant Ericksen energy, we propose a structure-preserving finite element method for the computation of equilibrium configurations. We prove stability and consistency of the method without regularization, and Gamma-convergence of the discrete energies towards the continuous one as the mesh size goes to zero. We design an alternating direction gradient flow algorithm for the solution of the discrete problems, and we show that such a scheme decreases the energy monotonically. Finally, we illustrate the method's capabilities by presenting some numerical simulations in two and three dimensions including non-orientable line fields.
Year
DOI
Venue
2020
10.1007/s00211-020-01133-z
NUMERISCHE MATHEMATIK
Keywords
DocType
Volume
Liquid crystals,Finite Element Method,Gamma-convergence,Landau-de Gennes,Defects
Journal
145.0
Issue
ISSN
Citations 
4.0
0029-599X
0
PageRank 
References 
Authors
0.34
13
3
Name
Order
Citations
PageRank
Borthagaray Juan Pablo100.34
Ricardo H. Nochetto2907110.08
Shawn W. Walker3276.05