A model of electrodiffusion and osmotic water flow and its energetic structure

We introduce a model for ionic electrodiffusion and osmotic water flow through cells and tissues. The model consists of a system of partial differential equations for ionic concentration and fluid flow with interface conditions at deforming membrane boundaries. The model satisfies a natural energy equality, in which the sum of the entropic, elastic and electrostatic free energies is dissipated through viscous, electrodiffusive and osmotic flows. We discuss limiting models when certain dimensionless parameters are small. Finally, we develop a numerical scheme for the one-dimensional case and present some simple applications of our model to cell volume control. (C) 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.