Mixed methods for the approximation of liquid crystal flows

Liu, Chun; Walkington, Noel J.

ESAIM: Modélisation mathématique et analyse numérique, Tome 36 (2002) no. 2, pp. 205-222.

The numerical solution of the flow of a liquid crystal governed by a particular instance of the Ericksen-Leslie equations is considered. Convergence results for this system rely crucially upon energy estimates which involve $H^2\left(\Omega \right)$ norms of the director field. We show how a mixed method may be used to eliminate the need for Hermite finite elements and establish convergence of the method.

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