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Long-wave dynamics of a lubrication layer under an inextensible elastic membrane

Banff International Research Station for Mathematical Innovation and Discovery

The long-wave dynamics of an elastic sheet lubricated by a thin layer of viscous fluid on a wetting substrate is examined using both numerical simulations and a quasistatic model. As a continuum model for a lipid bilayer, the elastic sheet has a electric capacitance that  stores changes across the membrane. Within the lubrication framework we investigate the electrohydrodynamics of the thin film coupled to the capacitive elastic membrane. Novel nonlinear dynamics is found and results are useful to understand electroformation, a standard experimental procedure to fabricate unilamellar vesicles from planar lipid bilayer membrane. We also extend this theoretical framework to investigate the rupture of vesicles when settled onto a glass substrate in an ionic solution.

Mathematics; Fluid mechanics; Approximations and expansions; Fluid dynamics

video/mp4

Author affiliation: NJIT

2019-10-29

Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International

http://hdl.handle.net/2429/72109

Unreviewed

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/