Journal
JOURNAL OF FLUID MECHANICS
Volume 742, Issue -, Pages 96-118Publisher
CAMBRIDGE UNIV PRESS
DOI: 10.1017/jfm.2014.14
Keywords
capsule/cell dynamics; mebranes; boundary integral methods
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Funding
- National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute [R01HL092793]
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Inspired by the recent experiment on erythrocytes (red blood cells, RBCs) in weak shear flows by Dupire et al. (Proc. Nail Acad. Sci. USA, vol. 109, 2012, pp. 20808-20813), we conduct a numerical investigation to study the dynamics of RBCs in low-shear-rate flows by applying a multiscale fluid structure interaction model. By employing a spheroidal stress-free state in the cytoskeleton, we are able to numerically predict an important feature, namely that the cell maintains its biconcave shape during tank-treading motions. Furthermore, we numerically confirm the hypothesis that, as the stress-free state approaches a sphere, the threshold shear rates corresponding to the establishment of tank treading decrease. By comparing with the experimental measurements, our study suggests that the stress-free state of RBCs is a spheroid that is close to a sphere, rather than the biconcave shape applied in existing models (the implication is that the RBC skeleton is pre-stressed in its natural biconcave state). It also suggests that the response of RBCs in low-shear-rate flows may provide a measure to quantitatively determine the distribution of shear stress in the RBC cytoskeleton in the natural state.
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