@Article{CiCP-18-147, author = {Peder Aursand and Johanna Ridder}, title = {The Role of Inertia and Dissipation in the Dynamics of the Director for a Nematic Liquid Crystal Coupled with an Electric Field}, journal = {Communications in Computational Physics}, year = {2018}, volume = {18}, number = {1}, pages = {147--166}, abstract = {
We consider the dynamics of the director in a nematic liquid crystal when
under the influence of an applied electric field. Using an energy variational approach
we derive a dynamic model for the director including both dissipative and inertial
forces.
A numerical scheme for the model is proposed by extending a scheme for a related
variational wave equation. Numerical experiments are performed studying the
realignment of the director field when applying a voltage difference over the liquid
crystal cell. In particular, we study how the relative strength of dissipative versus inertial
forces influence the time scales of the transition between the initial configuration
and the electrostatic equilibrium state.