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A tensor model of liquid crystalline polymers: application to basic disclination processes

One of the features of liquid crystalline polymers (LCPs) is their strong elastic anisotropy, which means they have unequal elastic constants. Elastic anisotropy plays a crucial role in the microstructure and macroscopic properties of LCPs. In this paper, the effect of unequal elastic constants on microstructure is investigated without an external field by using a deterministic tensorial approach. In this model, the evolution of the director field can be viewed as a process driven towards the state of zero elastic torque. A tensor expression of the elastic torque is used so that the nematic symmetry is automatically conserved. In simulations of bulk samples, disclination lines of strength half and escaped integer disclinations are observed. The distortion fields around the disclinations are found to depend on elastic anisotropy. If the twist constant is the lowest, as is the case for main chain liquid crystalline polymers, the disclination lines are predominantly of the twist type.