Electroconvection of thin liquid crystals: Model reduction and numerical simulations

•Reduced models and numerical methods for electroconvection in thin liquid crystals.•Comparison between infinite and slim electrodes configurations.•Extensive numerical parameter study. We propose a finite element method for the numerical simulation of electroconvection of thin liquid crystals. The liquid is located in between two concentric circular electrodes which are either assumed to be of infinite height or slim. Each configuration results in a different nonlocal electro-magnetic model defined on a two dimensional bounded domain. The numerical method consists in approximating the surface charge density, the liquid velocity and pressure, and the electric potential in the two dimensional liquid region. Finite elements for the space discretization coupled with standard time stepping methods are put forward. Unlike for the infinite electrodes configuration, our numerical simulations indicate that slim electrodes are favorable for electroconvection to occur and are able to sustain the phenomena over long period of time. Furthermore, we provide a numerical study on the influence of the three main parameters of the system: the Rayleigh number, the Prandtl number and the electrodes aspect ratio.