Deformation and rupture of compound cells under shear: A discrete multiphysics study

This paper develops a three-dimensional numerical model for the simulation of cells in simple shear flow. The model is based on Discrete Multi-Physics (DMP), a meshless particle-based method that couples the smoothed particle hydrodynamics and the mass-spring model. In this study, the effect of the nucleus in cells is investigated for a broad range of capillary numbers. It is shown that the nucleus size affects the deformation of the cell. Moreover, oscillations are observed in the tank-treading motion of the membrane when capillary number and nucleus size are both sufficiently large. Additionally, DMP shows that the cell and nuclei may experience rupture under extreme flow conditions.