  Polymer-dispersed liquid crystal (PDLC) composites have long been a focus of
study for their unique electro-optical properties which have resulted in
various applications such as switchable (transparent/translucent) windows.
These composites are manufactured using desirable "bottom-up" techniques, such
as phase separation of a liquid crystal/polymer mixture, which enable
production of PDLC films at very large scales. LC domains within PDLCs are
typically spheroidal, as opposed to rectangular for an LCD panel, and thus
exhibit substantially different behaviour in the presence of an external field.
The fundamental difference between spheroidal and rectangular nematic domains
is that the former results in the presence of nanoscale orientational defects
in LC order while the latter does not. Progress in the development and
optimization of PDLC electro-optical properties has progressed at a relatively
slow pace due to this increased complexity. In this work, continuum simulations
are performed in order to capture the complex formation and electric
field-driven switching dynamics of approximations of PDLC domains. Using a
simplified elliptic cylinder (microcapillary) geometry as an approximation of
spheroidal PDLC domains, the effects of geometry (aspect ratio), surface
anchoring, and external field strength are studied through the use of the
Landau--de Gennes model of the nematic LC phase.
