An efficient 2D implementation of a bio-chemo-mechanical model employing a quadratic representation to study cells on micro-post arrays

The paper aims to present an implementation in FEniCS of a bio-chemo-mechanical model which is widely used in modelling mechanical interaction between biological cells and their underlying substrate together with an approach for complexity reduction. The contact behaviour of the cell on the substrate is described using an alternative formulation, where a mixed function space is utilised on a single mesh. The weak form for the equilibrium condition is derived from the principle of virtual work. The methodology and the implementation using the open-source framework FEniCS are described. The results are compared with our previous outcomes using commercial software, where an approach with multiple meshes was used.