Energetic variational approaches in modeling vesicle and fluid interactions

In this paper, we establish a hydrodynamic system to study vesicle deformations under external flow fields. The system is in the Eulerian formulation, involving the coupling of the incompressible flow system and a phase field equation. The phase field mixing energy can be viewed as a physical approximation/regularization of the Helfrich energy for an elastic membrane. We derive a self-consistent system of equations describing the dynamic evolution of vesicles immersed in an incompressible, Newtonian fluid, using an energetic variational approach. Numerical simulations of the membrane deformations in flow fields can be conducted based on the developed model.