Dissertation
NUMERICAL INVESTIGATION OF ELECTRODEFORMATION AND TRANSPORT OF VESICLES
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), Washington State University
01/2020
Handle:
https://hdl.handle.net/2376/111834
Abstract
Deformation of flexible vesicle suspended in a fluid medium due to an applied electric field can provide valuable insight into deformation dynamics at a very small scale. Study of the deformation dynamics of cells and other sub-micron vesicles, such as virus and neurotransmitter vesicles are necessary to understand their functional properties. This mechanical characterization can be done by submerging the vesicle in a fluid medium and deforming it with a controlled electric field, which is known as electrodeformation. Electrodeformation of biological and artificial lipid vesicles is directly influenced by the vesicle and surrounding media properties and geometric factors. The problem is compounded when the vesicle is naturally charged, which creates electrophoretic forcing on the vesicle membrane. We studied the electrodeformation of vesicles immersed in a fluid media under a DC electric field. An immersed interface method is used to solve the electric field over the domain with conductive or non-conductive vesicles while an immersed boundary method is employed to solve fluid flow, fluid-solid interaction, membrane mechanics and vesicle deformation. Model results are verified with experimental observations for electric field driven translocation of a virus through a nanopore sensor. Our modeling results show interesting changes in deformation behavior with changing the electrical properties of the vesicle and the surrounding media. Vesicle movement due to electrophoresis can also be characterized by the change in local conductivity, which can serve as a potential sensing mechanism for electrodeformation experiments in solid-state nanopore setups.
More fundamentally, the underlying mechanical equations that govern membrane deformation are studied in detail and comparisons are drawn. Finally, the effects of electroosmotic flow at the channel walls are analyzed and both quantitative and qualitative results are presented on this flow driven vesicle transport and deformation.
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Details
- Title
- NUMERICAL INVESTIGATION OF ELECTRODEFORMATION AND TRANSPORT OF VESICLES
- Creators
- Adnan Morshed
- Contributors
- Prashanta Dutta (Advisor)Robert H. Dillon (Committee Member)Jin Liu (Committee Member)
- Awarding Institution
- Washington State University
- Academic Unit
- Mechanical and Materials Engineering, School of
- Theses and Dissertations
- Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), Washington State University
- Number of pages
- 147
- Identifiers
- 99900581611801842
- Language
- English
- Resource Type
- Dissertation