Numerical 3-D FEM simulation of tensor model for liquid crystal displays

We report our successful implementation of Q tensor model in a three-dimensional finite element method (FEM) simulator. The optically compensated bend (OCB) mode was chosen for verifying the accuracy of our FEM simulator and simulation results exhibited coincidence with the experimental data. Numerical calculation revealed that splay-to-bend transition occurs only at 5 V while the traditional vector-model based FEM solver produces an erroneous result of 8 V. The FEM code implemented in this work is based upon the Landau-de Gennes Q tensor model which is similar to the models of Dickmann and Nakagawa [Dickmann, S., Eschler, J., Cossalter, O., Mlynski, D.A., 1993. Simulation of LCDs Including Elastic Anisotropy and Inhomogeneous Fields, SID’93 Dig. 638–641]. The molecular dynamic behaviour of molecules in the OCB mode is thoroughly investigated in order to understand the physics of OCB operation.