FLUID VESICLES IN SHEAR-FLOW

The shape dynamics of fluid vesicles is governed by the coupling of th e how within the two-dimensional membrane to the hydrodynamics of the surrounding bulk fluid. We present a numerical scheme which is capable of solving this flow problem for arbitrarily shaped vesicles using th e Oseen tensor formalism. For the particular problem of simple shear f low, stationary shapes are found for a large range of parameters. The dependence of the orientation of the vesicle and the membrane velocity on shear rate and vesicle volume can be understood from a simplified model.