Convergence analysis of a fully discrete energy-stable numerical scheme for the Q-tensor flow of liquid crystals

Abstract: We present a fully discrete convergent finite difference scheme for the Q-tensor flow of liquid crystals based on the energy-stable semi-discrete scheme by Zhao, Yang, Gong, and Wang (Comput. Methods Appl. Mech. Engrg. 2017). We prove stability properties of the scheme and show convergence to weak solutions of the Q-tensor flow equations. We demonstrate the performance of the scheme in numerical simulations.