Article ID | Journal | Published Year | Pages | File Type |
---|---|---|---|---|
6915394 | Computer Methods in Applied Mechanics and Engineering | 2018 | 28 Pages |
Abstract
An isogeometric analysis formulation for simulating red blood cell (RBC) electro-deformationis presented. Electrically-induced cell deformation experiments are receiving increasing attention as an attractive strategy for single-cell mechanical phenotyping. As the RBC structure consists in a very thin biological membrane enclosing a nearly-incompressible fluid, (i) a surface shell kinematic model and (ii) the imposition of the shell enclosed-volume conservation constraint are proposed within the isogeometric analysis framework. With regard to the electro-deformation, an accurate evaluation of the electric-field induced forces is achieved by the Maxwell stress tensor approach. A staggered fixed-point iteration scheme is then proposed for performing the electro-mechanical coupling, in order to use reliable mechanical and electrical problem solvers sequentially. Supported by the comparison with experimental results and reference solutions, numerical simulations concerning the large deformation of a RBC by optical tweezers and an in silico electro-deformation experiment prove the accuracy and the effectiveness of the proposed formulation.
Related Topics
Physical Sciences and Engineering
Computer Science
Computer Science Applications
Authors
Nicola A. Nodargi, Josef Kiendl, Paolo Bisegna, Federica Caselli, Laura De Lorenzis,