Comparison between advected-field and level-set methods in the study of vesicle dynamics

TL;DR

This paper compares advected-field and level-set methods for simulating vesicle dynamics, introduces a viscoelastic law for membrane-fluid interactions, and presents numerical results highlighting differences between approaches.

Contribution

It provides the first comparison between advected-field and level-set methods in vesicle dynamics and introduces a new viscoelastic law for membrane-fluid coupling.

Findings

Level-set approach yields specific numerical results.

Differences identified in handling membrane incompressibility.

New viscoelastic constitutive law for membrane-fluid system.

Abstract

Phospholipidic membranes and vesicles constitute a basic element in real biological functions. Vesicles are viewed as a model system to mimic basic viscoelastic behaviors of some cells, like red blood cells. Phase field and level-set models are powerful tools to tackle dynamics of membranes and their coupling to the flow. These two methods are somewhat similar, but to date no bridge between them has been made. This is a first focus of this paper. Furthermore, a constitutive viscoelastic law is derived for the composite fluid: the ambient fluid and the membranes. We present two different approaches to deal with the membrane local incompressibility, and point out differences. Some numerical results following from the level-set approach are presented.