Fluid vesicles with internal nematic order

Models of flows containing vesicles membranes with liquid crystalline phases have been widely studied in recent times due to its connection with biological applications. In this work we propose a new model to represent the interaction between flows and vesicle membranes with internal nematic order and preferential orientation of their molecules in the membrane. In fact, the dynamics of the system is determined by the dissipation of an energy that regulates the competition between different effects, through the kinetic, bending, elastic and anchoring energies. Moreover we introduce a new numerical scheme to approximate the model, that is unconditionally energy stable. Additionally, we present several numerical results in order to show the well behavior of the proposed scheme and the dynamics of this type of vesicle membranes. (c) 2020 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Automated summary

In this study, a new model was proposed to represent the interaction between flows and vesicle membranes with liquid crystalline phases. A new numerical scheme was introduced to approximate the model, demonstrating good performance and showcasing the dynamics of such vesicle membranes through several numerical results.