This version is available at https://strathprints.strath.ac.uk/55796/ Strathprints is designed to allow users to access the research output of the University of Strathclyde. Unless otherwise explicitly stated on the manuscript, Copyright © and Moral Rights for the papers on this site are retained by the individual authors and/or other copyright owners. Please check the manuscript for details of any other licences that may have been applied. You may not engage in further distribution of the material for any profitmaking activities or any commercial gain. You may freely distribute both the url (https://strathprints.strath.ac.uk/) and the content of this paper for research or private study, educational, or not-for-profit purposes without prior permission or charge.Any correspondence concerning this service should be sent to the Strathprints administrator: strathprints@strath.ac.ukThe Strathprints institutional repository (https://strathprints.strath.ac.uk) is a digital archive of University of Strathclyde research outputs. It has been developed to disseminate open access research outputs, expose data about those outputs, and enable the management and persistent access to Strathclyde's intellectual output. Methods of fabrication of nanomesh aluminum films for LC alignment and their structure are described. A dependence of the pores' diameter vs. their fabrication conditions is found. A dependence of the alumina nanomesh on the pores' performances is simulated too.A theory of LC alignment in such system is proposed that allows prediction of the alignment type and explain experimental data. The LC orientation type is determined by the free anchoring energy and the micropore diameter. The difference of both planar and homeotropic anchoring energy is lower than the interaction energy by two orders of magnitude.