Immersed Boundary Method Simulations of Red Blood Cells and their Implementation for GPUs
Thomas Fai, New York University
We have developed a variable-viscosity and variable-density Immersed Boundary method that has been implemented for GPUs. Our method takes advantage of the Fast Fourier Transform and does not require us to solve any linear systems. We have used this method to study the motion of red blood cells, which make up 40% of the blood by volume and rely on their astounding flexibility to squeeze through the body's smallest capillaries. We will demonstrate that our model of the red blood cell recovers the physiological equilibrium shapes. Further, we will describe our simulations of single red blood cells in shear flow and of multiple cells in single-file motion within small capillaries. More recent work that attempts to realistically depict the spectrin cytoskeleton will be discussed, as well as the details of our GPU implementation.
Abstract Author(s): Thomas G. Fai and Charles S. Peskin