Numerical simulation of a compound capsule in a constricted microchannel

Area of Science:

• Computational fluid dynamics
• Biophysics
• Cellular mechanics

Background:

• Simulations of eukaryotic cells in constricted channels are vital for studying cancer cell properties and bloodstream transport.
• Compound capsules, modeling cell membrane and nuclear lamina, offer improved computational fidelity.
• Limited research exists on compound capsule simulations in microchannels and their computational performance impact.

Purpose of the Study:

• To extend a parallel hemodynamics application for simulating fluid-structure interaction with compound capsules.
• To compare the deformation of simple and compound capsules in constricted microchannels.
• To investigate the influence of capillary number and inner membrane volume fraction on capsule deformation.

Main Methods:

• Developed a computational framework to simulate fluid-structure interaction between compound capsules and fluid.
• Extended a parallel hemodynamics application.
• Analyzed capsule deformation under varying capillary numbers and inner membrane volume fractions.

Main Results:

• Successfully simulated compound capsules transiting constricted microchannels.
• Compared deformation characteristics of simple versus compound capsules.
• Identified dependencies of deformation on capillary number and inner membrane volume fraction.

Conclusions:

• The developed framework enables robust simulation of compound capsules in microfluidic environments.
• Understanding compound capsule behavior is essential for accurate modeling of biological cells, particularly cancer cells.
• Further research can refine computational models for cell transport and mechanics.