Static nematic liquid crystal director configurations have been calculated numerically for alignment over rin asymmetric grooved surface profile. The results demonstrate the existence of a low pretilt regime, where the director field follows the contours of the grating, and a high pretilt regime, where the director field shows a characteristic defect structure. The relative energies of the distorted director field have been calculated for the two regimes. The profile of a real surface has been implemented in the model and the predicted values of the pretilt are commensurate with those measured experimentally.