A Linear, Decoupled and Energy stable scheme for smectic-A Liquid Crystal Flows

Abstract: In this paper, we consider numerical approximations for the model of smectic-A liquid crystal flows. The model equation, that is derived from the variational approach of the de Gennes free energy, is a highly nonlinear system that couples the incompressible Navier-Stokes equations, and two nonlinear coupled second-order elliptic equations. Based on some subtle explicit--implicit treatments for nonlinear terms, we develop a unconditionally energy stable, linear and decoupled time marching numerical scheme. We also rigorously prove that the proposed scheme obeys the energy dissipation law at the discrete level. Various numerical simulations are presented to demonstrate the accuracy and the stability thereafter.