An Energy Stable $C^0$ Finite Element Scheme for A Phase-Field Model of Vesicle Motion and Deformation
Lingyue Shen, Zhiliang Xu, Ping Lin, Huaxiong Huang, Shixin Xu
Abstract
A thermodynamically consistent phase-field model is introduced for simulating motion and shape transformation of vesicles under flow conditions. In particular, a general slip boundary condition is used to describe the interaction between vesicles and the wall of the fluid domain in the absence of cell-wall adhesion introduced by ligand-receptor binding. A second-order accurate in both space and time C<sup>0</sup> finite element method is proposed to solve the model governing equations. Various numerical tests confirm the convergence, energy stability, and conservation of mass and surface area of cells of the proposed scheme. Vesicles with different mechanical properties are also used to explain the pathological risk for patients with sickle cell disease.